Gold Rock Creek residents are blaming the movie studio for the environmental deterioration of the beach in East Grand Bahama.
The beach, featured on the Ministry of Tourism’s website, was known for its beautiful powdery white sand.
Grand Bahama resident Peter Adderley is very concerned about the present state of the beach and has called for immediate action to address the situation.
Last year, Disney filmed its Pirates of the Caribbean movies at Gold Rock Creek. A huge water tank was constructed on the beach for the filming of water scenes.
Mr Adderley said he intends to make a presentation to Disney representatives of what has happened at Gold Rock Creek. He claims that since the movie production there has been environmental impact to the beach, creek and water table.
Mr Quigley, however, said the beach is not destroyed and feels that residents are exaggerating.
“They are obviously overreacting. The beach is not destroyed by any means,” he told The Tribune.
“There has been a deposit of small rocks on the beach and we don’t know for sure whether they came from excavation of the tank, or whether it was after the hurricane, which had unique winds that might have blown in those rocks, which are rounded from being weathered from the ocean,” he said.
Nevertheless, Mr Quigley said it is an issue that his company is dealing with.
“We are working with BEST at the moment. I met with the minister responsible, Marcus Bethel, and we are providing them with a management plan and out of that will come how we need to deal with the situation because we don’t know exactly what to do to.
“We can clear the rocks off, which we have done, but we can’t keep doing – that all the time. We are told by our environmental people that it will cease at some point, although it depends on how things are during the hurricane season when matters could get worse.”
Mr Quigley said Disney had finished its filming in Grand Bahama and had no plans to come back.
However, he revealed that a British company is expected to come in July for the filming of another movie on the fascinating life story of female pirate Mary Reid.
“We are also looking at doing a big budget series for Japan on the Japanese-Russian War and they are expected to come over to look at the tank.
“It is going to provide a lot of work for the Bahamas, and Grand Bahama in particular, because there are a lot of ships involved and they want to build those ships here.”
Mr Quigley said the movie studio is halfway completed with the installation of fresh piped water for residents.
In its agreement with government, the company will supply fresh water to people in the area.
Mr Quigley said that pipe installation work had been halted due to road elevation work being carried out in the area.
“We are unable to get access to some houses and we can’t put in piping until they get that road finished, but we managed to get halfway down the street and those people have beautiful – fresh crystal clear water now,” he said.
By DENISE MAYCOCK, Tribune Freeport Reporter
