JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, February 20, 2025

EMA monitors red river report

by

Radhica De Silva
2046 days ago
20190715
An investigating officer examines the Oropouche River which reportedly ran red last weekend. The EMA said it found no evidence of contamination in the water

An investigating officer examines the Oropouche River which reportedly ran red last weekend. The EMA said it found no evidence of contamination in the water

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As it con­tin­ued to mon­i­tor the Oropouche Riv­er, near the Dig­i­ty Mud vol­cano site, the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) is­sued a stern warn­ing that peo­ple who pol­lute the na­tion’s rivers can be fined up to $100,000.

The riv­er turned red last week­end, ac­cord­ing to the care­tak­er of the Dig­i­ty Mud vol­cano site Rakesh Ram­per­sad but by the time EMA in­ves­ti­ga­tors ar­rived, the con­t­a­m­i­na­tion had dis­ap­peared.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the EMA said fol­low­ing the so­cial me­dia post and re­ports of the pres­ence of a red­dish/pink sub­stance in the Oropouche Riv­er, in­ves­ti­ga­tions were done in the vicin­i­ty of the Dig­i­ty Mud Vol­cano site.

“The EMA team ex­am­ined the riv­er from sev­er­al van­tage points, both up­stream and down­stream and did not ob­serve any ev­i­dence of red­dish/pink dis­coloura­tion of the riv­er wa­ter,” the Au­thor­i­ty said.

The EMA said it re­mains in con­tact with the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and both en­ti­ties will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor this sit­u­a­tion.

“The EMA al­so re­minds the pub­lic of its re­spon­si­bil­i­ty un­der Sec­tion 37:05 (70) of the EM Act, that “any per­son who through the re­lease or han­dling of any pol­lu­tant or haz­ardous sub­stance, or the arrange­ment for an­oth­er per­son through any con­tract or oth­er agree­ment to re­lease or han­dle any pol­lu­tant or haz­ardous sub­stance, know­ing­ly or reck­less­ly en­dan­gers hu­man life or health, com­mits an of­fence, and is li­able on con­vic­tion on in­dict­ment, to a fine of one hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars and im­pris­on­ment for two years.”

The au­thor­i­ty al­so said that “any per­son who know­ing­ly or reck­less­ly un­der­takes or con­spires to al­low any ac­tiv­i­ty in an “en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive area” or with re­spect to an “en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive species” des­ig­nat­ed un­der sec­tion 41, which may have an ad­verse im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment with­in such area or on such species, com­mits an of­fence and is li­able, on con­vic­tion on in­dict­ment, to a fine of one hun­dred thou­sand and im­pris­on­ment for two years.”

Chair­man of the Cor­po­ra­tion Dr Allen Sam­my said the riv­er is heav­i­ly pol­lut­ed.

“Peo­ple throw all sorts of things in that riv­er and we are do­ing our own in­ves­ti­ga­tions to de­ter­mine what hap­pened,” he said.

On Sun­day, Ram­per­sad said the riv­er ran red once be­fore but it was not as vivid as the colour seen last week­end. He said on Sun­day, the red­dish colour had washed away fol­low­ing heavy rains.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored