Environmentalist Simone Mangal-Joly has written to the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) objecting to the EPA’s decision not to require an impact assessment for the new bridge over the Demerara River and pointing out that it was a reversal of an earlier position that one was needed.
Mangal-Joly in her correspondence of August 27th 2021 to the EAB – the body which determines appeals of decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – also pointed out that the EPA was now describing the bridge as a replacement and not a new one, as it had previously done, even though entirely different construction and engineering methodologies were involved.
The EPA had prompted shock in some circles when on August 18 it said that an application for an environmental permit for the new bridge over the Demerara had been received and in its judgement it will not require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The public was then given 30 days to consider the EPA decision and whether an appeal should be lodged with the EAB.
