A potentially bruising quarrel is brewing between the Government’s housing and shelter agency, the National Housing Trust (NHT) and the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), which could have implications for two of the Administration’s big showpiece projects:

. the NHT’s plan to develop a new city in the plains of Clarendon; and

. Alcoa’s planned US$690 million expansion of its almunina refinery in the parish.

Senior members of Prime Minister P J Patterson’s Government have not commented directly on what Administration sources conceded was a delicate issue.

But last week, Kingsley Thomas, the powerful and influential chairman of the NHT, went public with a complaint that he had been warned by the JBI against building homes near to the Jamalco refinery at Hayes, Clarendon.

For Thomas, it was a signal that the refinery expansion may be undertaken without appropriate environmental mitigation efforts, forcing developers to compensate for any such shortfall.

“I got this letter (from the JBI) saying I shouldn’t build too close to the plant because of the likely impact on the Jamalco expansion,” Thomas, considered to be the major project conceptuliser for the Patterson Administration, told the Sunday Observer.

“Obviously, they are not going to put in the relevant mitigation measures,” he added.

The implication of Thomas’ statement, therefore, is that the real problem is not of the NHT building too close to the alumina refinery, but the seeming failure of the authorities to insist that the proper environmental systems be implemented.

“I welcome the significant expansion of the Jamalco plant and its potential importance to the Jamaican economy,” Thomas said. “But I urge that due consideration be given to the environmental issues in order to protect the health and environment of the communities.”

Thomas had, on Wednesday, made a similar comment on the HOT 102 morning talk show, the Breakfast Club but had not elaborated on the point.

Contacted for comment, Jamalco said it did not have the letter Thomas received from the JBI and therefore was unable to determine the basis upon which he made the comment.

“Jamalco complies with the requirements of the environmental laws that govern its operations,” public relations manager Blossom Laidlaw said in a faxed response. “It is Jamalco’s policy to operate in a safe, responsible manner which respects the environment, safety and health of our workforce, our customers and the communities in which we operate. We will constantly improve on our Environment Management Systems and support pollution prevention strategies. We will not compromise our EHS values for profit or production.”

Neither the JBI nor the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) could advance the issue.

“We have no comment on the matter,” said the JBI’s information officer, Hillary Coulton. Neither could she confirm that the JBI’s executive director, Parris Lyew-Ayee, had written to Thomas.

However, other sources suggested that the JBI’s concern was that the western limits of the proposed development at Inverness, in south-east Clarendon, would be only about half-a-mile from the refinery and a mile from the Jamalco mud ponds.

The JBI apparently believes that at this proximity residents could possibly be affected by current emissions and the likely increased emission that will come with the refinery’s expansion.

“Simply, what the JBI is saying is that in the circumstance, there should be an agreed minimum distance of the development from the Jamalco refinery so that there will be no restrictions on the plant’s expansion,” said a Government source who is sympathetic to the JBI’s position. “It might require some redesign of elements of New Town, but both projects would go ahead.”

While Thomas would not go into the specifics of the JBI proposals, he told the Sunday Observer that he had forwarded Lyew-Ayee’s letter to NEPA, the agency that would have to approve an environmental impact assessment on both projects. But NEPA’s boss, Patricia Sinclair-McCalla, said at the weekend that she was unaware of the communication.

“I don’t know what the letter is about, because we do not have a copy,” Sinclair-McCalla said. “My (relevant) director does not know of that letter.”

She presumed that it had been recently sent and had not yet come to their attention.

The NEPA executive director, however, was aware of the NHT’s proposed New Town development, having received enquiries, “not an application”, from the Trust.

“It’s been reviewed,” she said.

The NHT, with assets of over J$62 billion, provides mortgages and develops housing projects for employees, who contribute three per cent of their salaries, by way of payroll deductions, to its fund as interest-free, seven-year loans. Employers match that contribution, but their payment is non-fundable.

The Trust has nearly 60,000 direct mortgagors. Since its establishment in the mid-1970s, the NHT has itself developed or financed several thousand homes.

But New Town is its most ambitious project yet.

Thomas spearheaded the NHT’s quiet purchase of 11,000 acres of land in Clarendon, on which he plans to develop, over a period of a decade, a small city of 150,000 people – about 30,000 homes – with a mix of recreational, industrial and economic zones.

The idea is that central and southern Jamaica are the country’s next growth belts, with Highway 2000, the French-built and managed toll-road now under construction, expected to be the catalyst for this growth. The first phase of the highway, a 71-kilometre stretch, is between Kingston and Williamsfield, Manchester. A 13-kilometre portion is already open.

“We want to start one aspect of New Town soon,” said Thomas.

But now there is the issue with the JBI and Jamalco, whose expansion, starting next year, the Government expects to give impetus to the Jamaican economy.

Though managed by Alcoa, the Jamalco refinery is now 50:50 owned by the US metals giant and the Jamaican Government. With the projected expansion it is expected that the Government’s stake will be diluted to around 30 per cent.

The expansion will move the plant’s production capacity from 1.25 million tonnes of alumina a year to 2.65 million tonnes.

As is often the case with communities near to baxuite/alumina installations, there have in the past been complaints, from people who live in the vicinity of the Jamalco refinery, about polluting emissions from the plant, which allegedly damage health and property. Some of these have reached the courts, but have been settled in the company’s favour.

Despite Jamalco’s vigorous community outreach efforts, such quarrels provide a source of periodic tension between the company and its host communities. This is what the JBI’s Lyew-Ayee is apparently trying to avoid in the case of New Town.

“They are concerned about where we may put residents,” said Donald Moore, the NHT’s general manager for development who heads the New Town project. “They wanted to meet us, but we want to do our tests firsts.”

The tests referred to by Moore relate to air quality surveys conducted in areas around where the NHT plans the town. The initial reports suggest elevated levels of dioxide and other polluting particles in the atmosphere.

NHT believes that some of this may be from charcoal burning in the area, as well as quarrying on lands now owned by the Trust.

But the initial assumption is that the bulk of any airborne pollutants is from the refinery, the only major industrial facility in the area.

“Our view is that there is an impact,” Moore said.