The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) says it has ad­vised the T&T Scrap Iron Deal­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTSI­DA) on the re­quire­ments to ob­tain a Cer­tifi­cate of En­vi­ron­men­tal Clear­ance.

In a press re­lease late yes­ter­day the EMA clar­i­fied that the re­quire­ment to ob­tain a CEC is sep­a­rate and apart from the re­quire­ment to ob­tain or re­new the Old Met­al and Ma­rine Stores Deal­ers Li­cence.

The TTSI­DA was fur­ther ad­vised that the EMA can­not di­rect nor in­struct the court and, by ex­ten­sion, its li­cens­ing com­mit­tee as it re­lates to doc­u­ments that are re­quired for the grant­i­ng of an Old Met­al and Ma­rine Stores Deal­ers Li­cence.

Scrap iron deal­ers com­plained yes­ter­day com­plained about prob­lems get­ting li­cences.

The EMA said it is guid­ed by the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Act, Chap­ter 35:05 (EM Act). The EM Act is sup­port­ed by sub­sidiary pieces of leg­is­la­tion, in­clud­ing the Cer­tifi­cate of En­vi­ron­men­tal Clear­ance (CEC) Rules and the CEC (Des­ig­nat­ed Ac­tiv­i­ties) Or­der, which have been in ef­fect since Ju­ly 2001. The CEC Rules guide the as­sess­ment of small and large-scale de­vel­op­men­tal projects, while the CEC (Des­ig­nat­ed Ac­tiv­i­ties) Or­der (as amend­ed) de­fines the 44 ac­tiv­i­ties which re­quire a CEC.

The EMA said its ju­ris­dic­tion lies with as­sess­ing the en­vi­ron­men­tal im­pacts as­so­ci­at­ed with projects with­in the des­ig­nat­ed list of ac­tiv­i­ties. Two such ac­tiv­i­ties that re­late to the TTSI­DA are DA 36 (The es­tab­lish­ment of a fa­cil­i­ty for haz­ardous or tox­ic sub­stance han­dling) and DA 37 (Re­cov­ery, re­cy­cling or in­cin­er­a­tion of waste).

Through the CEC process, in ac­cor­dance with the CEC rules, the EMA makes a de­ter­mi­na­tion whether or not a CEC is re­quired.