An il­le­gal quar­ry­ing op­er­a­tion in Ric­ki Trace, Ravine Sable, Long­denville, has been shut down by the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA).

The il­le­gal op­er­a­tion was high­light­ed in an in­ves­tiga­tive sto­ry pub­lished in the Sun­day Guardian on Sep­tem­ber 5.

Own­ers of the un­li­cenced op­er­a­tion were quar­ry­ing red sand, for close to a decade, on pri­vate­ly-owned land and state-owned land.

How­ev­er, in the im­me­di­ate af­ter­math of the in­ves­tiga­tive sto­ry, work on the site stopped, ac­cord­ing to res­i­dents.

Five days af­ter the sto­ry was pub­lished, on Sep­tem­ber 10, the EMA ’s Re­sponse and In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit par­tic­i­pat­ed in a mul­ti-agency in­ves­ti­ga­tion, with a Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice mul­ti-agency task force, and the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, at the quar­ry­ing site in Ravine Sable.

Ac­cord­ing to the EMA, “On the day of the site vis­it, there was nei­ther any work in progress nor any per­son present on the site.

“This is an on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion and the EMA is as­sist­ing the agen­cies with re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for il­le­gal quar­ry­ing in ad­dress­ing the mat­ter.”

On a vis­it to the site in the first week of Sep­tem­ber, there were sev­er­al trucks and an ex­ca­va­tor on site, re­mov­ing ma­te­r­i­al.

Ac­cord­ing to Ravine Sable res­i­dents, they made for­mal com­plaints over the years to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, the Min­istry of En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries, as well as the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty, but the il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty con­tin­ued.

Guardian Me­dia’s in­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed that the op­er­a­tion was earn­ing as much as $250,000 per week, un­taxed, by sell­ing the ma­te­r­i­al to con­trac­tors.

One square yard of red sand at the op­er­a­tion’s stock­pile, we were in­formed, sells for, at least, $100.

Li­cenced hard­ware stores are sell­ing the con­struc­tion ag­gre­gate for as much as $350 per square yard.

“Yes, the EMA came down that day with sol­diers. Look how long I have been call­ing them to come down here and stop this. I told them, ‘Like it’s on­ly when me­dia gets in­volved that some­thing is done,’’’ con­trac­tor and res­i­dent Don­ny Paras­ram Sookdeo said in a phone in­ter­view.

Ac­cord­ing to Sookdeo, the quar­ri­ers be­gan ex­ca­vat­ing land he owns sev­er­al years ago.

How­ev­er, his at­tempts to get them to stop, through for­mal re­ports and con­ver­sa­tions with the op­er­a­tion’s own­ers, on­ly brought more trou­ble, he said.

“They sent four men–Ras­ta City men–for me in June 2016. This van was six months old. They shoot it up. I write it off. My life is at risk,” Sookdeo claimed in a pre­vi­ous in­ter­view with Sun­day Guardian.

“They are vi­o­lent and trou­ble is easy to come. I’m beg­ging the au­thor­i­ties to in­ter­vene and shut down this...I have fam­i­ly, that’s why I am ap­peal­ing to the law.”

Now, he said, he and oth­er res­i­dents have long-await­ed re­lief af­ter close to two decades of quar­ry­ing in the area.

Dur­ing that time, the op­er­a­tions wreaked hav­oc on the en­vi­ron­ment.

In 2010, the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port was forced to do emer­gency work af­ter quar­ry­ing by a pri­vate con­trac­tor caused a lake to form, al­so con­tribut­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly to the cre­ation of a mas­sive canyon.

The canyon threat­ened to erode the vil­lage’s land, with per­son­nel from the Min­istry of Works and Trans­port warn­ing that a dis­as­ter loomed if im­me­di­ate ac­tion was not tak­en.

An em­bank­ment was built, sav­ing the vil­lage.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, then min­is­ter of works and trans­port Jack Warn­er de­mand­ed that quar­ry­ing in the area be stopped.

How­ev­er, un­li­cenced quar­ry­ing con­tin­ued all the way up un­til ear­ly Sep­tem­ber 2021.

There are fears among res­i­dents that if the il­le­gal op­er­a­tion re­sumes, their vil­lage may again be un­der threat of an­oth­er po­ten­tial en­vi­ron­men­tal dis­as­ter.

In re­cent years, ma­te­r­i­al from the em­bank­ment, con­struct­ed in 2010, was re­moved by quar­ri­ers.

Res­i­dents have claimed that the wa­ter lev­el of the lake in the area may be on the rise again.