AES Corporation, the Virginia-based energy conglomerate that proposes to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in The Bahamas, has been implicated in the deaths of several residents of the Dominican Republic.
There are also allegations that the company sought to dump thousands of tons of industrial waste on Ocean Cay, a man-made island 20 miles south of Bimini, The Bahama Journal has learned.
The government of the Dominican Republic has filed a lawsuit against AES Corporation for more than $80 million in damages, after two years of attempts to get AES to remove more than 57,000 tons of rock ash dumped on beaches in the D.R. between late 2003 and early 2004.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. Federal Court in Virginia on Thursday by the law offices of Dr. Bart S. Fisher.
The Dominican government is charging that AES dumped ash from coal burned at its electricity power plant in Guayama, Puerto Rico, on beaches in the Dominican provinces of Samana and Montecristi.
According to a press release issued by the government, “the ash sickened workers in the immediate vicinity, as well as people in the surrounding areas with bronchial or skin conditions, and several were reported to have died.”
A representative of AES spoke with the Journal from the company’s Virginia headquarters on Friday, and insisted that, “the allegations are false, and the claims have no merit.”
“We will defend the company vigorously against the charges,” the spokesperson said.
AES has claimed that the ash is not harmful, and that the company had obtained the required permits to dispose of it in the Dominican Republic.
The Journal spoke with Dr. Fisher on Saturday. He pointed out that the permits were obtained under the previous administration in the Dominican Republic, which he says “was turned out of office, this being one of the reasons.”
“How was it a permit was granted in the Dominican Republic with no environmental impact statement as required by (Dominican) law?” he questioned.
“There are many curious aspects to the granting of the permits. So the complaint alleges violations of the (U.S.) Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act] and the kinds of statutes that prohibit bribery of officials.”
“So ultimately, it’s a case about corruption and fraud, because there were misrepresentations made,” Dr. Fisher told the Journal.
Hippolito Mejia was president of the Dominican Republic at the time the permits were allegedly obtained. His administration left office in 2004 amid concerns of alleged banking fraud among other things.
President Mejia was defeated in the May 2004 elections by Leonel Fernandez, the sitting president of the Dominican Republic who hired Dr. Fisher and his firm on behalf of the government.
Dr. Fisher told the Journal that the $800 million AES Puerto Rico facility generates about 1,000 tons of ash each day. The evidence in the case shows that in order to secure the permit to place the facility on Puerto Rico, AES had to agree to remove the ash, which is a form of industrial waste, from the island.
Puerto Rico is within the customs territory of the U.S., and according to Dr. Fisher, “the general operating principle is that the U.S. should not export its waste to the third world and developing countries.”
“The right thing to do would have been to have it properly land-filled in the mainland,” Dr. Fisher told the Journal.
“Rather than do that – move it to properly contained landfills in the United States – they chose to try to find a lower cost solution by dumping it in some country in the Caribbean, one of which was The Bahamas,” Dr. Fisher said.
“The evidence will indicate that actually, some rock ash was dumped in Haiti with no permit, and that eventually there was pressure from Haiti to stop doing that and they then turned to the Dominican Republic, where they got permits. So the issue is how did they get the permits?”
According to the Dominican government’s press release, “perceptions of the damage and the effects of the ash were such that many visitors stayed away, and the tourism industry in each province has yet to recover.”
The evidence in the Dominican government’s case suggests that tourism to the affected provinces is down 70 percent or more as a direct result of the ash.
Bahamas Minister of Energy and the Environment, Dr. Marcus Bethel, recently told his Senate colleagues that in his personal opinion, “there is an acceptable environmental risk” in the location of an LNG plant on Ocean Cay.
According to the Dominican government’s release: “The environmental damage to the mangrove wetlands and National Park of Montecristi was severe and the harm to Samana is an environmental catastrophe…(Samana’s) whale-watching industry, which was thriving until the arrival of the ash, collapsed. As the ash was never contained or removed, several thousands of tons have been washed into the bay in the last several months…”
Dr. Fisher told the Journal that “for two years AES has refused to move the rock ash. They have never denied, ever, that it was theirs. They have never denied the origin of the shipment. They have never denied that it is their rock ash sitting on the beaches of Samana and Manzanillo.”
The Christie Administration had been considering two serious bids to locate an LNG facility in the Bahamas, one from AES and the other from Suez. Suez recently said it was considering a plant off Florida instead amid complaints that the Bahamas government was taking too long to reach a decision.
That left only the AES proposal to consider.
In fact, the Christie Administration has been considering the LNG proposals since coming to office in 2002. To date, despite previous indications that Prime Minister Perry Christie is leaning towards accepting the AES proposal, no decision has been announced.
The energy giant reportedly employs in excess of 30,000 people, and also owns an LNG terminal and natural gas pipeline at AES Andres in the Dominican Republic. The Andres facility does not seem to be involved in the current dispute.
The Bahamas Environmental Science and Technology (BEST) Commission explains on its website in the section “Ocean Cay Facts” that AES proposes the construction, operation and ownership of an LNG importation and regasification facility on Ocean Cay.
Among the proposed benefits of the project is an “Environmental Management Plan” which would provide procedures for operational emergency response, spill prevention, risk reduction, waste management and safe chemical handling.”
According to BEST, the proposed LNG facility would be committed to complying with Bahamian, U.S. Federal and the State of Florida’s regulations.
The Commission says the intent of AES is to, “construct and operate an LNG facility that results in minimal environmental and socioeconomic impact to the environment of The Bahamas.”
In addition to the LNG facility, the AES project proposes a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) removal plant; a seawater desalination plant; an undersea pipeline supplying potable water to North Bimini; employee housing and associated facilities on South Bimini, and an undersea Natural Gas (NG) supply pipeline.
Opposition to the project in The Bahamas is not exclusively environmental.
Former PLP MP George Smith, a Cabinet minister in the Pindling administration, cited a “potential danger to our precious marine life, the eco-system, the broader environment and the unmatched beauty of The Bahamas” in the approval of an LNG facility in the Bahamas.
Mr. Smith also claimed such a plant would open the Bahamas to “the possibility of terrorist attack.”
According to Sir Arthur Foulkes, a veteran journalist, and a former Cabinet Minister and diplomat, the potential terrorism threat would be a real one.
Loftus Roker, a Pindling-era Cabinet minister, said in a letter to the press in July 2003 that granting a license to any company to run an LNG facility in The Bahamas “would be the first step on the road to losing our freedom. No future government of The Bahamas would be able to rescind that licence, no matter if it determined that its presence is not in the interest of The Bahamian people.”
According to the press release, the Dominican government has “undertaken an exhaustive investigation of the ash in its environmental, criminal, legal and regulatory aspects. The first phase of the review revealed extensive violations of Dominican law and has led to administrative fines and criminal proceedings against the importers.”
The government of the Dominican Republic is now waiting for AES Corporation to answer the charges.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
