Draft legislation to crack down on water polluters
New legislation is expected to expand the Government’s power to respond to events that threaten Bermuda’s waters and increase penalties for offenders.
A draft Water Resources Amendment Bill, recently posted online for public consultation, is intended to help the Government crack down on water polluters.
Consultation documents said that boat sewage regulations created no-discharge zones near the island’s shore and within enclosed harbours including the Great Sound, Harrington Sound, Castle Harbour and St George’s Harbour.
A summary included in the bundle said: “These regulations require some updates to the Act to enable public officers from other departments to be able to enforce these regulations, in addition to providing more assistance to help prove offences of habitual offenders who discharge sewage within no-discharge zones.
“Many environmentally conscious companies already report pollution spills, monitor and clean up/remediate the soils/waters to set environmental guidelines and provide appropriate reporting.
“These companies are typically conditioned to do so within their operating licences that are issued for ‘controlled plants’ defined under the Clean Air Act 1991.
“It is important that all polluting activities to the ground that could threaten pollution to groundwater and seawater be controlled in order to protect human health and the environment.”
The regulations would also make it an offence not to report a pollution event and bolster enforcement powers in the wake of an incident.
Under the legislation, the minister responsible would be able to issue pollution stop orders, which can include abatement and remediation requirements mandating a clean-up along with treatment and monitoring of public waters or grounds.
Another summary document explained: “If, in the public interest, the minister considers that immediate action is necessary to protect against significant injury to human, animal or plant health, the minister may enter upon any land, premises or vessel to take such steps as deemed necessary.
“Such action by the minister could include stopping the pollution source or initiating remediation/clean-up.
“The minister may recover by action from the owner of any land, premises or vessel the expenses reasonably incurred by the above steps to address the pollution.
“Any person wilfully obstructing the minister in the exercise of his powers under this section commits an offence.”
The Royal Gazettereported yesterday that the Bermuda Clean Air Coalition called for an extension to the feedback window of six weeks to two months “at least”.
The Government responded that while it considered three weeks to be adequate, it would consider an extension.
In a statement, the pressure group said: “BCAC called for updated legislation and have been waiting on it for years.
“We first learnt about it from the media. No one has contacted us.
“We have two weeks to read and understand them and put it to our members, gather feedback, go to industry experts, go to emissions experts, medical experts, gather independent regulatory and legal advice and produce an opinion in two weeks.
“On the one hand, it’s good to see the legislation is coming, but look how many pages the legislation is. We have to to be able to understand it.”
A spokesman for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources responded yesterday: "While we appreciate the public's concerns, DENR is confident the three-week consultation period provided is adequate time for stakeholders to review the information and provide their feedback; however, an extension will be considered if deemed necessary.
“As part of the consultation for the Clean Air Amendment Bill and Water Resources Amendment Bill, officers from DENR are planning to hold in-person presentations with local environmental groups.
“To that end, communications went to all local environmental groups, including the BCAC, on June 19, 2024. These communications included all information related to the consultations and an offer to meet to discuss them formally. A second follow-up e-mail was sent today.
"DENR looks forward to receiving responses from all the environmental groups and meeting with them in the coming days."
The legislation would also bring harsher fines for a number of offences, increasing penalties from “not more than $5,000” to between $5,000 and $20,000.
Courts could also order an additional $1,000-per-day fine for continuing breaches.
The Government would issue guidance online, based on international best practice, to inform the public about how to reduce the risk of oil spills.
The public consultation period is scheduled to conclude on July 9, with residents able to provide feedback online through forum.gov.bm.
Walter Roban, the Minister of Home Affairs, said last week that it was hoped the feedback would be used to amend the legislation so it could be tabled in the House of Assembly next month.
A consultation period was also launched for the Clean Air Amendment Bill, which is intended to refine the limit values of pollutants to help reduce acute and chronic risks to the public and the environment.
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