NEPA to serve enforcement notice on Petrojam

Charlene Stuart, Gleaner Writer

The National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) says it will be issuing an enforcement notice to Petrojam in light of evidence identifying the state-owned oil refinery as the source of last Wednesday’s noxious fumes.

The Director of Legal and Enforcement Services at NEPA, Robert Collie, says the notice will require Petrojam to take certain steps to fix the problem.

The Environment Minister, Robert Pickersgill had promised strong enforcement action against Petrojam, on the basis that the incident was not reported as was required.

But earlier today, Petrojam’s general manager, Winston Watson said as far as he’s aware his team met with NEPA on the day of the incident.

NEPA’s CEO, Peter Knight has since denied this, maintaining that the agency was never informed.

Knight says he plans to raise the issue tomorrow during NEPA’s board meeting.

Wednesday’s incident is the second time in less than six months that noxious fumes have been released from Petrojam.

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