By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

Kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

ACTIVIST Fred Smith, QC, yesterday criticised the government for releasing a “reactionary” draft Environmental Planning and Protection Bill calling it “a mere public salve” to ease the sting Bahamians are feeling from the 2012 Rubis fuel leak in Marathon.

Mr Smith said as the Bahamas has limited land and sea resources, which have been abused for decades, a bill such as this, should have been the priority of successive governments.

Save the Bays (STB), the environmental activist group Mr Smith chairs, said yesterday that the draft bill falls short of comprehensive measures covering all aspects of the use of and interaction with the precious natural resources of the Bahamas.

However, Mr Smith said the Christie administration should be commended for finally releasing the bill for public consultation.

“It is obviously intended as a public salve,” Mr Smith said. “It is such a pity and a shame that our government only reacts in crisis given that nearly 20 years now the environmental lobby has been encouraging both administrations to get serious about protecting the environment.

“There is no sense in having a Ministry of the Environment without an Environmental Protection Bill, it is just puerile.”

Speaking to The Tribune, Mr Smith was critical of the government saying both the Black and Veatch International report into the Rubis fuel leak and the BEST Commission were not independent.

“I am very pleased that Minister (of the Environment Kenred) Dorsett and the government are finally realising the supreme importance of environmental protection in the Bahamas. It is something vital to the health and safety of humans and marine life.

“Unfortunately the tragedy that is unfolding regarding Rubis is finally bringing them to understand that all the organisations are not simply making noise but to show that the environment matters.

“While there was a report into the Rubis spill by Black and Veatch, they used the information that was harnessed by government organisations. And I wouldn’t even begin to talk about the BEST Commission. The government only uses it to pretend for the international community that it has some kind of environmental agency. Where is the independence in that?”

Following the Rubis leak in 2012, the government contracted Black and Veatch International, which produced a report finding that Marathon residents were exposed to harmful chemicals, including cancer-causing benzene.

The report was completed in February 2014. However, the government did not make the report public until last month despite having it for more than a year.

The Christie administration released the draft bill on Tuesday in the aftermath of uproar over the government’s perceived lack of response to the 2012 gasoline leak in Marathon. Bahamians have continued to criticise the government over its handling of the situation.

The bill’s intention is to bring about greater protection to the environment.

It also sets out stiff penalties for offences that harm the environment and says the public should be alerted to incidents that might harm their health and wellbeing.

Where there are environmental accidents, the responsible parties are required to notify the government by way of the Department of Environmental Health.

Making a false statement to the government or breaking any of the provisions of the act is liable to a fine of $100,000 or a prison sentence not more than one year.

Additionally any offence that is committed or continued for more than one day will stand to face separate convictions for each day the infraction was committed.

The minister of the environment and staff are also protected under the bill.

“Nothing done by the minister or any person acting under authority of this act shall, if such a thing was done bona fide for the purposes of executing any of the provisions of this act, subject such person to any action, liability, claim or demand,” the bill read.