FOUR civil society groups are calling for compensation for fisher folk and residents in St Catherine who they say were negatively impacted by the Rio Cobre oil spill caused by a malfunctioning boiler at the former Jamaica Beverage Plant operated by Trade Winds Citrus Limited in December 2023.

However, in a statement released by Trade Winds Citrus Limited pre-empting Wednesday’s press conference by the groups, Managing Director Peter McConnell strongly refuted claims of environmental harm to the Rio Cobre, while reaffirming the company’s long-standing commitment to protecting the river and supporting the local community.

McConnell emphasised that Trade Winds has been a pioneer in environmental stewardship, achieving compliance with wastewater discharge regulations long before they became law.

At the press conference held at Courtleigh Hotel, president of Friends of the Rio Cobre Kestonard Gordon led the charge, expressing frustration that their request for compensation was not met by Trade Winds.

“Before the matter went to mediation, friends of the Rio Cobre made efforts to negotiate compensation in good faith for these affected fisher folk and submitted a proposed sum for compensation. This was based on the fact that during the approximately seven days when the river was unusable, fishers were unable to earn an income,” he said.

He explained that after the request was made, Friends of the Rio Cobre did multiple follow-ups with the relevant authorities and was met with a delayed response before it was rejected on November 27, a day before the court hearing in which all charges against Trade Winds were dropped.

“This claim for compensation was served during the first week of September and it took the authorities of Trade Winds Citrus eight weeks before they finally got in touch with us — which is a day before the court hearing — to advise us that they were rejecting the offer to pay compensation; and when we did further checks, we recognised that the call came [on] the 26th of November and the contract — the secret agreement between NEPA (National Environment and Planning Agency) and Trade winds Citrus — was signed on the 26th of November,” he said.

While acknowledging that Trade Winds was not required to compensate residents, Gordon said that the entire situation was handled disgracefully by all involved. He described NEPA as a “gross failure to the entire country”.

He said it is extremely difficult or impossible to continue working with NEPA as the agency is unreliable.

“They do not submit evidence of their investigation and it is a constant bottleneck to get reports from NEPA. [It] carries us around the block all the time and tries to avoid being straightforward and honest with us,” said Gordon.

He said that Friends of Rio Cobre will be launching a national boycott against Trade Winds and all its associated brands and will be reaching out to both local and international consumers to join the boycott.

“We are asking them, whenever they go to the supermarkets, it’s simple, [if] it’s a Tru-Juice product, just leave it alone. We are going to be using our social media network to intensify it. We’re going to be sending around flyers with their products and we are going to ask, especially housewives, to just stay away from the sorrel this Christmas. You can go to the market and get a nice sorrel, but stay away from their products for the time being until they are ready to ensure that the poor victims in these communities are taken care of,” he said.

Meanwhile, chief executive officer at Jamaica Environment Trust Dr Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie is calling for a thorough investigation by the director of public prosecutions into NEPA and the Natural Resources Conservation Authority’s (NRCA) handling of the case.

She is also calling for a reform of the NRCA board to include a majority of environmental professionals, while demanding the establishment of an environmental court to ensure swift and fair judgments.