THE National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has ordered an immediate suspension of sand mining in the Rio Grande.

CEO of NEPA Peter Knight told the Jamaica Observer that the entity which was given a permit to mine the Portland-based river has been served with an enforcement notice to cease all activities while people who have been mining in the river illegally are to be targeted by the security forces.

“Over the years there have been concerns about the operation of the mining in the river. Let us be clear, this is an operation that has been licensed and it has the necessary environmental permits which stipulate how it can operate. It has a licence from the Mines and Geology Division for sand mining and it has the necessary environmental permits which stipulated the conditions.

“In fact, the terms of the environmental permit are as such that the entity has to constantly adhere to a number of stipulated conditions which some would say are stringent or prohibitive. But what has happened is that from time to time we get reports of breaches of the permit and we have had many interventions with the entity over the years,” said Knight as he pointed out that there has also been intervention from other stakeholders in relation to breaches of the mining permit.

Knight noted that if the mining is not done judiciously, it impacts other people who depend on the river for their livelihoods, including rafts men and farmers in the Rio Grande Valley.

Rafting on the Rio Grande is one of the premier tourist attractions in Portland but it has been under threat from pollution caused by sand mining

“If the mining is not done judiciously then it is going to impact all other activities as it can degrade the environment and the surrounding facilities,” added Knight.

He told the Observer that recently NEPA received evidence of the impact of the mining on the river and decided to take action.

“[There has been] oil and grease and other issues, so what we have done, having investigated the matter, we have served an enforcement notice and that notice has given instructions to cease operations immediately and we understand that the operator has complied.

“Now what we are seeking to do is to revisit the issue to have discussions with all the stakeholders — tourism, farming, political representatives, citizens groups and the regulatory agencies, which would include Mines and Geology [Division] — to see how best we can re-engineer to see if all the economic activities can exist along the river,” said Knight.

He told the Observer that NEPA understands the economic opportunities that the Rio Grande provides and is willing to see if sand mining can co-exist with everything else.

“There is the view that the river requires to be mined or else there could be other social impacts so we have to get the stakeholders together and we discuss this issue. It means that we have to get the discussions going and at some point the discussions will include the entity which now has permission to carry out the mining,” added Knight.

The NEPA CEO underscored that there is no set date for when the suspension of sand mining in the Rio Grande will be lifted as this will depend on the outcome of the discussions.

“The legal enforcement notice that we have served under the NRCA [Natural Resources Conservation Authority] Act was with immediate effect, but how long it will be suspended will depend on how soon we can get all of these discussions completed and the decisions we will agree on, because we need to find consensus to determine how we move forward,” said Knight.

He noted that the people involved in illegal mining in the Rio Grande are an even bigger environmental threat than the entity licensed to conduct mining and warned that they will be targeted by the security forces.

“We have information and this is being interrogated and there is going to be a tracking along the Rio Grande corridor. We will not disclose the information that we have at this time but we will have to find the illegal operators and take action against them,” declared Knight.

In the meantime, minister with responsibility for the environment Matthew Samuda told the Observer that the impact of mining in the Rio Grande is one which has long been studied by his ministry.

According to Samuda, he is in favour of a solution that would allow legal mining to continue without damaging the operations of the raft captains.

“There is no way that the Andrew Holness-led Administration will allow an operation that is environmentally damaging to the Rio Grande to continue with the permission of this Government,” said Samuda, as he noted that raft captains on the Rio Grande have repeatedly argued that their livelihood is in trouble as the river is being polluted by gasoline and other contaminants from the heavy equipment used during the sand mining.