“Our welfare is more important than profits from oil and gas” – picketers to EPA

Oct 15, 2022 News

---

By Davina Bagot

Kaieteur News – A group of public-spirited citizens on Friday joined forces to picket the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA’s), Ganges Street, Georgetown Head Office after the body, which is mandated by law to protect the environment and its inhabitants, failed to respond to a letter which embodied the concerns of over 50 persons.

The letter, dated August 29, 2022 was addressed to both the EPA and the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB). The signatories had specifically called on the regulatory body to respond to the letter within 30 days; however, the EPA chose to remain silent. In fact, even during Friday’s protest, no officer of the EPA bothered to greet the peaceful picketers to understand their plea. Instead, staff members

were seen looking on from their windows.

Danuta Radzik, who is an environmental activist and who was on the picket line, told members of the media that the group is “disappointed” that the EPA believes it does not need to respond to the concerns of Guyanese citizens whom they should be protecting.

She argued, “This is new to Guyana, we have never had oil and gas and it seems as if the EPA is more interested in protecting the oil companies than protecting and looking out for Guyanese communities – for our children, for women, for workers, for all of us.”

The activist went on to explain that about 54 citizens had signed an open letter to the EPA where they raised concerns regarding the onshore hazardous waste facilities servicing the petroleum sector.  That letter was premised on the fact that the EPA failed to utilise a US$1 million loan from the World Bank to upgrade its capacity to monitor and enforce the Environmental Protection Act.  Radzik pointed out that the loan was not used even though the entire country is aware of the additional expertise required by the EPA to carry out its functions.

She said this was not the only alarming action of the EPA as the group also believes the agency is not fulfilling its mandate of protecting Guyana. “The EPA in some cases were not fulfilling their mandate to protect the environment of Guyana, to protect the safety of communities, the safety of all those who live in communities on this coast who are in the vicinity of where these facilities… These waste facilities have been established so this was our concern,” the picketer said as she held up her placard.

Radzik pointed out that the 54 persons had also listed a set of recommendations for the EPA to halt the waivers of Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for onshore waste management facilities in communities where hazardous and radioactive waste was being brought from the offshore operations.

In addition, she explained that citizens were also concerned about the lack of stakeholder consultations by the EPA on matters than concern their safety. “We live in communities, we have our families, we have our children in communities and for us the safety, the welfare of our communities and our families is paramount. It’s more important than the profits or the money from oil and gas companies in Guyana,” the activist pointed out.

To this end, Radzik noted that the Environmental Permits granted by the EPA for the hazardous waste treatment facilities must be made public as these are not presently available on the agency’s website.

She pointed out that a number of other permits have been uploaded by the regulator to its website; however some of these are not as potentially harmful as hazardous radioactive waste facilities, yet the EPA decided not to publish the permits. The picketer argued that citizens must be aware as to who the companies are and their purpose since “every time ExxonMobil and the other oil companies – Hess and the Chinese company – every time they find new drilling spots, then the more you drill, the more waste you are going to have.” This also brings into question whether these facilities are being overwhelmed by the amount of waste and if they are properly equipped to handle the increased volume of these materials and substances, she said.

According to her, “For every barrel of oil, you will have at least maybe four (or) five barrels of waste so we are talking about large amounts of waste that are coming onshore and we do not – people who live in communities who would be affected by these hazardous and toxic waste – do not know. We do not have this information. Why is it not being given out by the EPA and are they collecting it?”

Radzik added that the information must be shared with the public as it “could be a matter of quality of life for us.” While some of the hazardous waste facilities are located near schools, businesses and even faith based organizations and homes, there is no information available regarding same. She also claimed that residents of communities had raised complaints with the EPA regarding noise pollution as a result of heavy machinery operating at night, but the body has turned a blind eye.

In the meantime, the activist said the group is prepared to explore other options of putting pressure on the EPA to give the public the information requested.

Throwing his support behind the picketers was former Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson. Patterson, who now shadows the Natural Resources Minister in Parliament, said he believes more citizens and organisations should come out to voice their opinions on the management of the sector as this would be better for the country.

---

---