Lower Estate folk hope for end to quarry stench

Residents in Lower Estate, St George are literally not holding their breath for relief from the pungent odour which emanates from a nearby quarry, some have told Barbados TODAY.

Reacting to the stop order issued by the Chief Town Planner on Wednesday which has ordered the operations at the St George mine to wrap up by October 26, residents are praying that this is the end of their nightmare.

The notice instructed the entities served to “cease using any part of the land for mining and quarry purposes, cease using any part of the land for the purposes of storage in connection with the said development, remove from the land all vehicles, equipment, machinery and materials brought onto the land for the purposes of that use [and] restore the land to its condition before the breach took place”.

But the quarry’s owner and operator, prominent waste hauler Anderson Cherry, could be headed back to court after being served with a stop notice on one of his operations.

Earlier Cherry told Barbados TODAY: “I am a little bit concerned because we were put before the law court because we attempted to change the use from mining to recycling and we were instructed by the Town Planner that we are not allowed to change the use and we would have to continue to mine.

“I understand the concern, but what we are doing is not illegal. However, as a citizen of Barbados, we will comply with whatever the Town Planner requests and we may see if the court thinks I am doing something right or wrong.”

When a Barbados TODAY team visited the area on Thursday evening, residents shared their experiences after what they say have been years of complaining to the authorities about the situation.

Keith Lynch expressed particular concern for the young and older people in the community.
“The situation is bad, it is affecting a lot of people in the neighbourhood here, especially the old people and we have a lot of kids out here,” he said.

But he was hopefully optimistic about a quick remedy to the situation. “We talked about it already but I would like something done, we can hope for the best but I don’t know if they are going to shut it down or try to maintain it better that it won’t be so bad to people, but we can only wait and see,” Lynch said.

Another resident who identified himself as Stephen said: “As the wind direction changes it causes numerous problems, right now children have respiratory problems and so on. And really Government and Town and Country Planning like them aren’t bothering themselves with us, but elections coming up.”

He explained that he has been part of an advocacy committee that has been fighting to get the situation rectified for several years.

Stephen said: “This is really unbearable and to keep going on and on…persons kept asking us to write and get contact with [officials] and we have been doing it consistently and it’s like we are being ignored. This is more than five years… you get the different gases especially between 1:30 and 2 on mornings especially when you get some rain. This thing is so unbearable you can’t open the house and I think this is really bad for persons who have been living here for 30 years.”

Still, he is hoping for a reprieve but prefers to wait and see what comes next. He said: “Well, as they say, elections coming up now. So, I believe though that they’re going be fine trying to get closer elections coming in everybody goin’ play that they bringing they backside out now you wasn’t hearing them before.”

Another resident said she is longing for the day that the operations at the quarry come to a permanent end.

She said: “I have been living here all of my life and over the years being affected by that scent its does affect you during the fore day mornings and rainy times so you have to close up and be indoors and although you are indoors it [the scent] seems to be stifling and I would really like to see something done about it and that it would close permanently.”

She explained that the odours caused health challenges which have now been exacerbated by COVID-19.

“Because the children that are asthmatic and have sinusitis, when the [smells] interferes with the sinuses, to run to [get medical attention] they are getting mixed up with [COVID symptoms] it isn’t a good feeling at all,” she said.

(kobiebroomes@barbadostoday.bb)