... La Brea residents living in 'dust bowl'

Camille Bethel cbethel@trinidadexpress.com
Monday, June 22nd 2009
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161494730

Work on the Alutrint aluminium smelter in La Brea has stopped, but the people of Square Deal continue to live in what they have described as a "dust bowl".

Residents, who have been protesting outside the smelter for the past month, yesterday said the Environmental Management Authority-approved works being carried out at the Union Industrial Estate were still affecting them in the form of dust.

"The trucks that going down inside there to carry material for the power plant raising real dust when they passing because they stop wetting the ground in the way that they supposed to," spokesperson for the villagers, Anslym Carter, said yesterday.

While a High Court ruling had prevented further work on the actual smelter, work on the power plant to supply the plant and other infrastructural facilities is still continuing. Carter said this is something they want addressed, because several villagers have been complaining about the increased level of dust. Another resident said the dust had her coughing and sneezing 24 hours a day. Carter said a community meeting was planned last evening at their camp site to explain last Tuesday's High Court ruling that has blocked the construction of the Alutrint smelter. "We are going to explain to those who weren't there what it really means for us and plan our way forward," Carter said.