IN the job now for only a few months, NEPA’s new boss Dr Leary Myers is overseeing a review of licensing procedures, prompted by an unflattering court ruling that rapped the agency for not doing a good job as watchdog of the environment.

“We are looking at our guidelines, making sure they reflect current realities and will amend where necessary,” said Myers. “What we intend to do going forward is to follow our guidelines no matter what.”

The move follows the recent judicial review of its environment permit to Hoteles Jamaica Pinero Limited (Hojapi) for the development of the Bahia Principe Hotel at Pear Tree Bottom in St Ann.

Supreme Court justice Bryan Sykes ruled that the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) and its sub-unit, the Natural Resources Conservation Authority (NRCA) were less than rigorous in their review of the development, saying they breached their own procedures.

Sykes on June 23 opted to allow Hojapi to retain its environmental permit, ruling that the mess up was not a fault of the developer.

Three weeks later, NEPA says among the adjustments to be made in its application and licensing process is the amount of time it takes to process individual applications.

“There is this notional thing of 90 days turn around time for an application,” said Leary, NEPA chief executive officer.

“Experience has taught us that with an application that requires an environmental impact assessment, it is very difficult to turn around that in 90 days. So we are going to give you the public an idea of how long it will take, if it requires an EIA,” said Myers.

To safeguard the integrity of EIAs, the agency says it now plans to certify EIA consultants. But Leary said this is a long-term plan, requiring legislative changes.

He made it clear, however, that prospective developers would continue to foot the bill for EIAs, contrary to the desire of some environmental activists, such as Peter Espuet.

Espuet, the executive director of Caribbean Coastal Area Management (CCAM), has maintained that the practice is one that potentially biases the consultant to the developer, putting the integrity of the EIA into question.

One of the issues emerging in the Pear Tree Bottom case was the currency of data on which Hojapi’s permit was granted.

NEPA now says it is planning to establish a bank of baseline data to be accessible to planning and environmental regulators during approval reviews.

“What we are trying to do is develop baseline data so we have an understanding of what is out there. If we have that, it makes our examination of an EIA that much more easy,” Myers said.

Though acknowledging that they will be costly to draft, the NEPA chief executive added that development orders – which stipulate land use and types of construction allowed in particular locations – would go a far way in aiding the process.

“Ultimately what we at NEPA want to ask for is development orders that describe what activity can take place at a particular place or portion of Jamaica,” said Myers.

“That would make things easier.”

For now, the agency assesses plans on a case-by-case basis.

Other adjustments to be made include the non-acceptance of incomplete applications and the teaming of case officers with enforcement officers to beef up their monitoring of approved developments.

At the end of the review process, the CEO said, the public should see a more efficient NEPA, recognising that even then they will come under criticism.

“It is the simple things that we are going to do. It is not rocket science . we want whatever decision we make to be based on solid and sound science and on the best available information that can be defended any time, anywhere,” said Myers.

“We are not predisposed to development or the preservation of the environment. We are looking to ensure that we do the right thing given the information that we have. We are scientists. We know the importance of data and we will go where the data leads.”

williamsp@jamaicaobserver.com