INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE INTO OPERATIONS AT SMALL REFINERY
Sep 20, 2011
The Department of the Environment is investigating the discovery of what is
called quote, "a clandestine oil refinery" on the outskirts of Belmopan.
The discovery was made on Monday here at this dilapidated refining
operation about a mile off the Western Highway near mile forty-seven, just
three miles from the nation's capital. The dirt road which leads to the
Belize Christian Academy and further back, in very bad condition at some
spots - also bears this sign in Spanish that basically says no trespassing.
Once on the compound, the signs of refining operations were apparent, with
equipment and tanks on site. It is an operation that the Department of the
Environment knew nothing about and today its Chief, Martin Alegria, told
Love News what they're looking at in their investigations.
Martin Alegria - Chief Environmental Officer
"From the briefing I've gotten from my technicians and my officer is that
it is a one man show, small operation, has been refining some of the crude,
small amounts in order to produce diesel. If you go to the Environmental
Act and the regulations there under it says that the EIA regulations for
example, it has refining as under schedule one, that they must go through
an environmental impact assessment and the whole issue of how big it is,
the volume being produced is addressed in the terms of reference of those
studies that needs to be done but inevitably it does call for one which is
a clear violation."
Marion Ali - Reporter
What are the penalties?
Martin Alegria - Chief Environmental Officer
"Not doing an EIA and having started an initiative I think it is between 50
and 100 thousand or 20 to 50. Depending on what it is and what stage it
is, the area is not the best environmentally or health wise kept and the
whole operation apparently has been going on for a while. They are
investigating those issues how it came to happen, how it came to happen to
how close we are."
Alegria explains why his department is concerned over the illegal
operation.
Martin Alegria - Chief Environmental Officer
"If you look around you see oil around the place. I guess it is because of
the lack of equipment, the lack of procedure, of maintenance, it looks bad.
Cleaning up will take a while and some funding and some technology. We
are talking about the processing, storage is another issue. How do you
store the crude, how do you store the sludge that comes out of it, how do
you get rid of that, how do you store the produced product at the end of
the day, diesel or gasoline, how do you store it, how do you transport it.
I am just mentioning a few of the things that needs to be addressed let's
say in the EIA process before you undertake it so start your plan
accordingly and wisely but we are investigating."
The operation is not a large scale one, but its environmental effects could
be major, and that is why Alegria says his Department is also looking at
ways of holding the local petroleum provide to bear when it sells its
product locally.
Martin Alegria - Chief Environmental Officer
"I know that the provider at this stage sells internationally 90 something
percent of its product and locally the rest. This gives us the Department
of the Environment something to think about, where is the local sales
going; secondly, what is being done with this, is it for a particular
purpose, how much, I think we have some of it but not who and where it is
going and what it is being used for., Those are things that might now fall
under the purview of the Department of the Environment but it is something
that we need to address."
We wanted to address the issue first hand, at least for the news when we
got there today, but there was no one we could talk to, as the only person
we were told operates the refinery, a Cuban, is in police custody because
he is said to be in Belize illegally. He has a Cuban passport but also
possesses a US residency card and with Monday's impromptu police raid at
the location and subsequent discovery, they have now informed Interpol
about the Cuban and his operation in Belize.
Story at
http://www.lovefm.com/ndisplay.php?nid=14713