The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environ-ment has written to A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Joseph Harmon on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saying that an impact study was done 12 years ago for a proposed airport project hence a new one was not necessary.
The Ministry sent a copy of the letter in reply to Harmon to the media yesterday. It is unclear why the EPA itself did not respond to Harmon. In the letter, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry Joslyn McKenzie said that the EPA received an application for an environmental authorisation for the Chinese-funded US$138M airport expansion project on November 23, 2011. Sources noted that an application was made on this date even though the first inkling of the Chinese-funded project came by way of a report in the Jamaica Observer on November 18, 2011. It was only after this report was carried in the online and print editions of Stabroek News that the government acknowledged the project. In the circumstances observers
