The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition was formed in 2019 with a specific mission: press for the modernisation of Bermuda’s outdated clean-air legislation and address the growing air and water quality crisis affecting our island. For five years, the BCAC has advocated tirelessly for meaningful legislative reform and a seat at the consultation table, while representing the interests of residents, schools and businesses affected by Belco’s emissions. During this time, we have heard countless promises from the Government and Belco about improvements to air quality and stricter environmental protections — yet Bermudians continue to breathe toxic air and drink contaminated water as these promises remain unfulfilled.

The latest issue

The Clean Air Amendment Act 2024, suddenly tabled on December 6 by home affairs minister Walter Roban, represents the first update to Bermuda’s air-quality legislation in 30 years. While the Act includes some modifications from the June consultation draft, including slightly increased penalties for violations, these fines remain largely symbolic for a company of Belco’s size and revenue.

More concerning, several provisions appear weaker than the June version, with less stringent enforcement mechanisms and diluted community protections. The Act contains significant substantive flaws — failing to adopt World Health Organisation air-quality standards, relying on substandard monitoring equipment and providing insufficient penalties to deter polluters.

Crucially, this Act was tabled without the accompanying Clean Air Amendment Regulations, which contain the vital implementation details and standards. Yet Mr Roban appears ready to rush the Act to a debate and vote today!

This lack of transparency and failure to engage with public feedback demonstrates a troubling disregard for principles of good governance. Rather than seizing this once-in-a-generation opportunity for meaningful reform, the Government has produced legislation that appears to prioritise political convenience and corporate interests over public health.

Sham consultation process

The Government’s approach to public consultation has been nothing short of farcical. After initially allowing just three weeks for feedback in June — extended to six weeks only after intense public pressure — the Government has systematically ignored substantive input. The BCAC spent the entire consultation period producing a comprehensive 89-page report, incorporating detailed analysis from international experts and scientists, yet received no response beyond a complaint from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that our document was “too large to upload to their web portal”. The Government then spent four months ignoring this extensive feedback before suddenly tabling a weaker version of the legislation originally presented for public consultation.

Even more troubling is the DENR’s selective approach to consultation. While claiming to have consulted with certain groups, such as Belco and some individuals behind closed doors, it ignored the BCAC’s repeated requests for engagement. Now, with the legislation poised for passage, the department suddenly offers to meet with the BCAC — but after the vote in a cynical gesture that underscores its disregard for meaningful public input!

This pattern of behaviour — soliciting public input only to disregard it, then offering token consultation after decisions have been made — makes a mockery of the consultative process and reveals a lack of commitment to genuine reform.

Conflicts of interest and regulatory capture

The legislation is fundamentally compromised by an unprecedented web of conflicts. Most egregiously, Wayne Caines serves simultaneously as Belco president and as a Member of Parliament for Devonshire North West, which is close to the power station. Under Mr Caines’s leadership, pollution has continued unabated while Belco’s parent company, Algonquin Power & Utilities, reported third-quarter net earnings of $64.9 million. His dual roles represent an unacceptable conflict of interest: how can he effectively represent constituents suffering from Belco's pollution while leading the very company responsible for their distress?

Mr Roban oversees multiple regulatory bodies while also representing a constituency close to Belco (Pembroke East), and Environmental Authority chair Davida Morris is a Progressive Labour Party candidate in nearby Pembroke South West, further highlighting the system's political capture.

Failed regulators

The DENR, EA and Regulatory Authority exemplify regulatory capture in Bermuda. Operating under Mr Roban’s control, the DENR drafts legislation, provides technical advice to the EA, and supposedly is responsible for monitoring compliance — a closed loop with no independent oversight. The EA, ostensibly tasked with regulating air quality and emissions, is staffed with political appointees lacking expertise in environmental regulation. It relies on the DENR for technical input, effectively acting as a rubber-stamp body rather than an independent regulator. The EA has then deferred key decisions to the DENR, which has also deferred to the RA. This creates a situation where accountability is diluted and confusing, and regulatory actions get stalled, leading to public frustration and a lack of transparency in addressing environmental concerns.

In 2022, under Mr Roban’s ministry, the only island-wide air-monitoring programme was secretly defunded during peak soot emissions from Belco's new North Power Station. This failure to prioritise public health protections underscores a deeply compromised regulatory system.

Yet, while ignoring industrial pollution that poisons our community, the DENR aggressively enforces things such as outdated 1930s agricultural policies that cost Bermudians millions annually in inflated food prices. Its priorities are tragically misplaced: entire shipments of fresh food will be rejected over minor technical violations — forcing families to pay triple for inferior items — while turning a blind eye to Belco’s well-documented pollution.

Many fresh fruits and vegetables essential for children’s healthy development are banned from importation, contributing to Bermuda’s obesity and healthcare crisis. The DENR’s rigid enforcement of woefully outdated import restrictions actively harms public health twice over: first, by making nutritious food unaffordable and inaccessible for many families; then by failing to protect these same families from industrial pollution that causes cancers and other illnesses, further driving up healthcare costs. This reflects an agency more concerned with preserving its bureaucratic power than protecting public welfare.

As Bermuda's primary environmental regulator, failures of the DENR pertaining to Belco are systemic and far-reaching:

• No comprehensive investigation of repeated soot fallout events despite years of documented complaints

• Ignoring independent laboratory evidence of water contamination

• Failure to implement regulatory-grade air-quality monitoring

• Proposing legislation that relies on inferior monitoring equipment that is unsuitable for enforcement and placed in too few locations

• Operating as a politically captured agency that writes, interprets and enforces its own regulations without independent oversight

The human cost of this regulatory failure is powerfully illustrated by Catherine Pereira, who lives near Belco. “I was extremely angry and still am at the fact that nothing has changed since 2019,” she says. “We are still being polluted as of December 10, 2024. My roof was recently covered in thick, long orange and black oil streaks stretching into the gutters. This isn’t minor contamination; it’s extensive pollution flowing directly into our water tank. And the amount of soot that builds up and has once again washed into our tank is terrible. While Belco finally sent someone to paint over the visible stains with a single coat after my husband had to bleach the roof himself, they continue to insist our water is safe to drink. Meanwhile, DENR has gone completely silent, ignoring our concerns since earlier this year. The fact that the regulators and Belco think this is acceptable is deeply upsetting.”

Independent testing by overseas laboratories found heavy metals such as lead, barium, chromium and zinc in water-tank filters, and recent government water testing has found uranium, strontium, vanadium, lead, arsenic, mercury and a host of other heavy metals, along with arsenic, dioxins and petroleum hydrocarbons — yet Belco claims this water is safe to drink. Tellingly, when offered samples, neither Mr Caines nor health minister Kim Wilson would drink it.

The BCAC is concerned that many parents are unaware that some school water tanks failed Bermuda’s already very weak water-standards test earlier this year. We wonder now about children's drinking water at schools such as The Berkeley Institute, West Pembroke Primary, BHS, Northlands Primary, Bermuda School of Music, Saltus Grammar School, Dellwood Middle School, MSA, Victor Scott Primary, CedarBridge Academy and all the preschools and daycare facilities in Belco’s fallout zone.

Are they drinking straight from the tank or do they use appropriate grade filters? And how often are the filters changed? When was the last time independent tests were run on all these schools’ water tanks? What about metals such as iron and petroleum hydrocarbons found recently in school water tanks? Should the public believe the DENR and Belco when they say it’s safe to drink?

The impact on schools is particularly concerning. Multiple educational facilities sit within the fallout zone, potentially exposing our most vulnerable population — our children — to harmful emissions during their critical developmental years. This situation is unconscionable in a modern society that claims to prioritise child welfare.

Critical flaws

The proposed legislation fails fundamentally by:

• Adopting outdated British standards instead of stricter WHO guidelines. Notably, the British standards were designed for a completely different context — Britain prohibits power generation plants in densely populated urban areas, unlike Bermuda where Belco operates in the heart of residential communities

• Allowing inferior “indicative” monitoring equipment that is unsuitable for enforcement

• Providing insufficient penalties to deter corporate polluters

• Ignoring soot fallout and odours, and health impact assessments

While other jurisdictions have successfully implemented WHO guidelines to protect public health, Bermuda continues to accept substandard protections. Adding insult to injury, as parent company Algonquin reports substantial profits, Bermudians face rising electricity rates from Belco, which according to Greenlight Energy are now the highest in the world. These rates are rubber-stamped by Mr Roban’s regulators and Bermudians are paying more while being poisoned by the very company meant to serve them.

Missing regulations

The Government's failure to table Clean Air Amendment Regulations 2024 alongside Clean Air Amendment Act 2024 further undermines public trust. While the Act provides a basic legal framework, the crucial details of implementation — including specific air-quality standards, enforcement mechanisms, and monitoring requirements — are contained in the missing regulations. Without these, MPs and the public cannot fully evaluate how, or if, this legislation would protect Bermudians from emissions. The Government’s decision to proceed with the Act while withholding the regulations from scrutiny suggests either incompetence or a deliberate strategy to minimise public oversight of its approach to controlling industrial pollution.

Political timing and opportunism

The rushed nature of this legislation is perhaps no coincidence. With Mr Roban set to retire from politics and the Government facing a General Election in 2025, this appears to be more about securing a legacy than protecting public health. The decision to table the Bill on December 6 with a debate and vote expected only a week later suggests a cynical attempt to push through weak legislation before year’s end.

Broken promises

In October 2023, another of Mr Roban’s quangos, the RA, saw chairman Mark Fields promising Bermuda a “crack team” of US university experts that would address Belco’s emissions. A year later, there is no sign of this team or any progress report.

Legacy of failure

Walter Roban’s handling of this crisis will be remembered as one of the most egregious failures of environmental leadership in Bermuda’s history. Given five years to address this critical public health issue, he apparently chose instead to protect corporate interests, leaving a legacy of children breathing polluted air in nearby schools and residents forced to constantly clean soot and oil from their roofs and water tanks.

Critical role for area MP

Jason Hayward, whose Pembroke Central constituency sits on three sides of the Belco plant, has previously demonstrated understanding of this crisis. In February 2023, he strongly criticised Belco’s emissions, demanding compensation for affected residents and calling the company’s response “tone-deaf”. Now, with this flawed legislation before Parliament, Mr Hayward, himself a Cabinet minister, has a unique opportunity to translate his words into action today. As a senior member of the PLP government, he can lead the charge for meaningful reform, showing his constituents and Bermuda that their health matters more than corporate profit.

Other MPs, particularly those representing constituencies affected by Belco’s emissions, have the same opportunity to demonstrate real leadership. This vote represents a chance to break from the pattern of prioritising corporate interests over public health. MPs who stand up against this rushed and inadequate legislation will be remembered for protecting Bermuda’s children, rather than rubber-stamping another three decades of environmental degradation in our communities.

Call to action

• Immediate postponement of today’s vote until the legislation is fit for purpose

• Simultaneous update to both the Clean Air Amendment Act and the Clean Air Amendment Regulations

• Allow the Bermuda public to view this updated legislation in good time, with a full public consultation period, before it is tabled and debated in Parliament

• Adoption of WHO guidelines as the minimum acceptable standard

• Mandatory implementation of regulatory-grade monitoring equipment

• Creation of truly independent regulatory oversight that is free from political interference

• Earlier retirement for Walter Roban before more damage is done

Time is critical. Every day that this weak legislation remains under consideration, Bermudians continue to breathe and drink polluted air and water. Our children cannot wait another 30 years for proper environmental protection. MPs must recognise their personal responsibility in this moment — their vote and voices today will either protect or endanger the health of Bermuda’s children for generations to come. We urge all MPs to read the August 31 consultative report published by the BCAC, Earth Forward Group and endorsed by the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce, along with the other public submissions before debating the legislation. The DENR has our report; please ask for it.

The time for half-measures and political convenience is over. Every MP who votes for inadequate legislation will be remembered for choosing corporate interests over children’s health. Bermuda’s children deserve clean air, and its residents deserve better than polluted water and empty promises.

• The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition is an activist group whose mission is to bring awareness of the grave implications caused by Belco’s stacks and machinery to the public