With fresh concerns that many of the island’s sugar factories and rum distilleries are not disposing of their waste in the most environmentally friendly way, the Water Resources Authority is now reviewing a number of proposals on how to keep the island’s bodies of water free from cane wash and dunder.

Regulators, who admit that they have dropped the ball in the past, are now determined that things will change.

“I don’t even want to blame the companies alone. The regulators need to get themselves together, also, to make sure the companies are compliant,” admitted the WRA’s Michelle Watts.

“We are just now, hopefully, getting our act together this year so that we can get something in place where the waste is properly treated before it is discharged into the environment. And I hope no exceptions will be made.”

As part of that effort, there is an ongoing review of a number of proposals, submitted by sugar estates across the island, for the treatment of waste products. The list of companies that have submitted proposals includes Appleton in St Elizabeth, New Yarmouth in May Pen, Long Pond in Trelawny, and Clarendon Distilleries.

The proposals were submitted between August and December of last year.

“The rum distilleries have put on paper what they propose to do, in terms of the better management of their waste. So we have, in hand, reports with their plans to better handle their waste from the five rum distilleries…” Watts said.

“We are not happy with the progress and the rate at which these things are being done, but we are still working on it. I am hoping that by the end of this year we’ll have some concrete things in place to begin to address this. The waste going directly into the river has to stop at all of the factories.”

Livingstone Morrison, the head of the state-run sugar companies, declined to comment in detail on the manner in which the six factories under his command dispose of their waste water.

“It’s a matter that I can’t discuss with you, even though it’s good news for us,” he said cryptically.

But according to agriculture minister Roger Clarke, a significant investment will have to be made to correct the problem of waste disposal at Appleton Sugar factory.

“They (Appleton Estate) will have to put up a proper disposal system for the disposal of the waste, and it is going to cost a lot of money,” he said.

“I know that NEPA (the National Environmental Planning Agency) has been working with them and they have done some work but it really needs a much better waste disposal system,” the agriculture minister added.

He cited the construction of ponds, to store the factory’s waste water, as one measure that the estate had implemented in the past.

“They put a receiving area (pond) where they store the dunder and what they do is to move the dunder from the pond into tanks and add it to water and then use it to irrigate the cane fields,” he explained.

But that, the agriculture minister said, had not solved the problem.

“When they irrigate, if rain falls it runs back again in the drains and then into the river, and if they don’t use it to irrigate and it remains in the ponds, the ponds will overflow and the waste water will find its way back in the river,” he said.

Both WRA and the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) agreed with the agriculture minister that Appleton’s efforts have fallen short.

“The rum distillery and the sugar refinery both have been having an impact on the river,” Watts told the Sunday Observer. “I was out in the field two Fridays ago, and I personally witnessed the waste running through the Black River up at that end. I was very concerned.”

A few years ago, when Appleton adopted the dunder-ferti irrigation mechanism – the use of dunder from their operations as fertiliser for the cane fields – it was as an alternative to the use of sinkholes, which usually resulted in the dunder seeping into the river.

But this new irrigation method, once believed to be a solution to the seepage issue, has problems of its own, according to the WRA.

“We studied the impact of that (dunder-ferti project) for three years to see whether the waste being put on the cane fields would have any impact on the rivers.

Our water resources report concluded that was not the best approach to handling the dunder in that area because the rainfall was too high and the stuff runs off the cane fields, back into the river,” said Watts, who heads the water quality and environment unit. “Sometimes the river overflows its banks and flows into the cane fields.

When it recedes, it washes right back in the field. That area is not ideal for the on-land application of the dunder waste and so we are not in support of the land application system for Appleton.”

Now, residents of nearby Barton, a small community of mainly farmers and fishers near the Black River, have threatened to take to the streets.

The river and the fish in it are dying, said Kenneth Dunkley, a 43 year-old farmer/fisherman.

He and many of his neighbours are convinced that this is linked to the Appleton factory’s waste disposal methods.

“Several time we see dead fish in the river,” Dunkley said, adding that the fish population in the Black River is almost exhausted.

“We used to sell a lot of fish, particularly shrimps, but now we hardly can catch any to sell because of the waste water,” said another resident, who opted not to provide a name.

Watts said a visit to the area three weeks ago showed that cane wash, in particular, has become a problem.

“Essentially (cane wash) is organic waste. To a lay-person, it sounds good, like it’s not a bad thing,” JET’s executive director Diana McCaulay said. “But what the organic waste does in the river is it increases what’s called the BOD (Biologial Oxygen Demand) loading that increases the demand on the oxygen in the river.

Creatures that might need that oxygen are affected by that.”

This can cause the fish to die, Watts explained, something not uncommon to the area.

“We have seen some of the implications over the years. When you have sudden, large volumes of the waste being out into the river you end up with fish kills. What the community observes is dead fish floating at the surface of the river,” she said. “Essentially the fish suffocates… and you have fish kill, bad odour and discolouration of the river itself.”

In addition to the impact on fishermen’s livelihood, the changes in the river have also impacted negatively on the everyday lives of community members.

“We hardly get water in the pipes down here and so when we don’t have any, only the river water we have fi wash we clothes,” said one woman. “But during the crop season we can’t wash down there because the water black and slimy.”

During a recent visit to Maggotty Pass, a small community in Barton, St Elizabeth, residents were adamant that they would protest outside the gates of the Appleton factory.

“If it mean that we have fi demonstrate outside of the factory gate we a go do it,” one elderly community member shouted angrily.

It is unclear if Appleton is aware of or has plans to address these issues, as efforts to reach operations manager Ian Maxwell by telephone over a two-week period were unsuccessful.

He was said to be either out of office or engaged in meetings each time the Sunday Observer called.

During a recent visit to Appleton Estate in Siloah, St Elizabeth, large plumes of smoke were coming from the chimneys, indicating that the production of sugar was on in earnest.

From the back of the large processing plant, a steady flow of water ran through a trough into the nearby Black River.

The water appeared to be dark and contained several particles, some of which resembled cane trash.

JET legal director Akila Anderson believes it is time to address the problem head-on.

“JET’s contention is that the problem does not have to be in your face to be worthy of addressing. It’s been going on a long time,” Anderson said. “We acknowledge that there have been efforts, but we don’t believe that there is enough (being done) and we can’t understand why the authorities don’t seem to know what’s going on or to have a firm position themselves.”

But indications are that the authorities are trying to get a handle on things this year. Watts said the WRA and NEPA will be moving to ensure that Appleton and all the island’s other sugar estates comply with trade effluent standards.

“These standards are being applied to many of the industries and should be applied to all,” she said. “It is unfortunate that we haven’t been able to enforce the trade effluent standards (that applies to the rum distillery and sugar factories) to all factories. They have been essentially in violation. (But) we haven’t been able to get both the regulatory agencies and the companies to work together to get the solution in place.”