Government to uphold nuisance permit Isla refinery

September 04, 2011 3:59 PM

Yesterday the Institution Schoon Milieu Op Curaçao (Smoc) won the appeal against the verdict of the judge of February 22nd whereby Smoc’s request for interim provisions and upholding by the government in first instance was rejected.

“A clear victory for us, whereby the government suffered a humiliating loss and from which it appears they’ve neglected to uphold the nuisance permit of the Isla refinery for years,” says Smoc.

The judge ruled that the government is to send a letter to the Isla refinery within four weeks, pointing out their violation of the various articles of the nuisance permit. The government was subsequently ordered to terminate and maintain termination of the permit on violation of its established regulations, and to supervise the observance. This letter is subsequently to be published in Papiamentu and Dutch newspapers under penalty of 500,000 guilders per week up to a maximum of 50 million guilders. The government was also ordered to pay the legal costs of 3500 and the court fee of 150 guilders.

“The judge indicated a long list of articles from the nuisance permit, which the Isla is to observe and which the government is to uphold. One point that we’ve been quoting for years is the peaks of excessive sulphur emission. In 1994, the refinery was compelled to purchase two sulphur recovery installations (SRU’s) that are to ensure the permitted sulphur emission is not exceeded. We always stated that these installations did not function properly. The judge stated the refinery is to immediately (mind you they’re not given four weeks for this) ensure that these installation have an efficiency of 98 percent, which by the way should have happened in 1997. Any efficiency below this percentage is not allowed,” says Smoc-chairman Peter van Leeuwen. He explains that the emission data of the two air-measuring stations shown on the website are not validated. “The government who always stated the refinery never exceeded the standards must now demonstrate with validated data within four weeks that the daily emission of 365 micrograms of sulphur was not exceeded, as of January this year up to the day of the verdict. The verdict leaves no doubt if the government is unable to present this data: ‘terminate the permit and uphold such with supervision on observance’,” says Van Leeuwen.

He states that Smoc’s defense elaborated on the ‘inadequate investigation into the oil leaks that recently polluted the waters of Curaçao without proving the oil was collected properly’. This also applies for the powder incident of last June.

2 September 2011