THE Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) is considering taking the National Works Agency (NWA) to court to modify the controversial US$65-million protection and rehabilitation works project along the Palisadoes peninsula in Kingston.

“We are assessing our options for legal action,” JET’s chief executive officer Diana McCaulay told Career & Education on October 5. “We are looking at the law to see if there are areas we can challenge, and we will continue to monitor the project and bring it to public attention.”

One possibility is to ask the courts to determine if the NWA has operated correctly to carrying out the project, McCaulay said.

“If legal action would be taken, it would be done quickly,” she added.

While acknowledging that it was too late to completely stop the project, which involves construction works along the 5.5-kilometre strip from Harbour View to the Norman Manley International Airport, McCaulay said it was important to protest what she called the total exclusion of the public and lack of transparency from the process.

But NWA communications and customer service manager Stephen Shaw disputed this statement, saying that since 2007 several meetings have been held at different levels, including with many of the persons present at the public meeting in Harbour View to discuss the project last Tuesday.

He also dismissed the view that the project was overpriced.

“Given the sharp focus on this project, we have to make sure that we do everything according to the book,” Shaw added.

McCaulay and Shaw were earlier involved in a heated exchange at the public meeting.

During a question and answer session, the JET boss was describing the project as a waste of taxpayers’ money and the public meeting as “a PR spin job” when Shaw asked her to direct questions rather than make statements.

“No sir, I am sorry, you are going to have to put up with me tonight, so hug it up and sit down,” an angered McCaulay responded.

“We didn’t invite you here to be arrogant and rude,” Shaw fired back.

McCaulay questioned the development of the project in a Ramsar site and said she was advised that three pieces of heavy equipment for US$5 million could move the sand from the road in the event of a hurricane instead of having to carrying out the proposed work at more than 12 times that cost.

A Ramsar site is an area recognised under an inter-governmental convention as a wetland of international importance to ensure its conservation and wise use.

A gathering of eminent professionals in engineering and environment sciences, as well as Harbour View residents peppered representatives of the NWA and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) with questions at the meeting held at the St Boniface Anglican Church.

Questions were raised about the possible destruction of turtle nesting sites and why a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was not done for the project, which was revised from 2007.

In response, NEPA’s acting manager for the applications processing branch Ainsley Henry said the works were of a smaller magnitude than that originally proposed. He noted said that the original EIA was done three years ago and was still valid.

“We haven’t lost sight of the fact that it is a protected area and a Ramsar site, but we are of the opinion that we did not need a full blown EIA,” he said.

Andrea Donaldson, acting manager of NEPA’s ecosystems branch, said the prime area for turtle nesting was from the Plumb Point lighthouse to Lady Lightbourne corner and thus outside the works area — a statement that was disputed by McCaulay.

Keith Scott, first vice-president of the Mining and Quarries Association of Jamaica commended NWA on the project, saying it would protect trillions of dollars of investment along the Kingston Harbour, including the Caribbean Cement Company, the Tower Street Correctional Centre, the Port of Kingston, and the Bank of Jamaica.

“It’s a critical project. A storm surge will wipe out Harbour View all the way down to Newport West. I find that more important than a few mangroves and a couple turtles,” he said.

Scott listed Biloxi, New Orleans and Galveston as examples of cities in the United States that had been severely affected by hurricane without similar revetment works.

Cowell Lyn, a civil engineer and former consultant to NEPA, questioned the need for the increased cost for the project which had evolved from the US$18.5 million Cuban design in 2004 to US$35 million in 2007, to its present US$65 million.

He said the literature on the Palisadoes indicated that “the risk of a catastrophic breach was very remote” and that a beach replenishment approach should be adopted.

Lyn noted the new design did not include groynes (protective seawalls) similar to ones built in the 1950s, which he said protected the Palisadoes tombolo effectively until Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004.

“I think there is going to be a serious misallocation of scarce resources,” Lyn said.

But consultant on the project Chris Burgess, in response, said the previous design had no allowances in the budget for drainage, the road, preliminary and contingency costs for the harbour side design.

“The design was incomplete and the cost was not a true reflection of the cost,” he said.

Burgess added that the groynes would be ineffective given the stronger and higher waves being experienced over the past 10 years, and as such the revetments in the new design were more appropriate.