will last less time than it took Government to process its application.

And that has Belco president Garry Madeiros worried. He says it took Government more than two years to process the application and it has now granted it a licence for 18 months, effective from May 1.

"It is our view, for a variety of reasons, that the time factor is inappropriate,'' he said in a letter to shareholders obtained yesterday. "In North America, the average licensing period for power stations is five years, which we feel would also be suitable for Bermuda.'' Belco applied for an operating licence in March, 1994 to comply with Clean Air Act regulations. It cost the utility more than $250,000 just to present the initial application.

Over the last two years, officials from the Authority and the company spent considerable time reviewing the materials and discussing how BELCO is moving toward total compliance of The Clean Air Act by 1999, as the Act requires.

The Authority wanted an initial 18-month period as a timely way of checking to see that Belco was progressing toward meeting that 1999 compliance deadline.

Environment Ministry environmental engineer Dr. Tom Sleeter said the company had produced an exhaustive and completely professional application, but they had been given guidelines on the relatively limited information that would be required at the 18-month renewal.

Dr. Sleeter said: "We've told them that they didn't have to do as elegant a job as they did the first time. They put together a really detailed and beautiful application with lots of computer modelling and lots of predictions.

They did a wonderful job.

"And while they wished to avoid being monitored for years, that would create a potential problem. Once the Authority sets conditions down for a specific period, they can't make any changes they may want, without going to trouble of going to the Minister.'' Dr. Sleeter said the 18-month period means that any changes that the Authority may deem to be required, including the loosening or tightening of specific requirements, can be reviewed at that time.

But Mr. Madeiros said yesterday: "The preparation took the company several months and a lot of money. In fairness to the Environmental Authority, they have told us that they do not feel that what will be required will be anything like what the first application was.

"But our concern is that that theory may not be supported by reality, because invariably, we are always required to produce an inordinate amount of information.

"We can only hope that the future process does not again consume an undue amount of resources.'' Mr. Madeiros said credit was due to the Environmental Authority for working closely with Belco on the application. And he accepted the regulatory role the Authority must take.

But he said: "I would estimate that it cost us about $250,000 in using experts to provide material. That has nothing to do with the time it took our people from their other responsibilities. If you start adding that all up, it could be a much higher figure.

"But that $250,000 paid for the required consultants, getting the information, putting together the report with all the analyses and statistical evaluation, the studies that had to be done in order to come up with what was needed, so that we could submit an honest, fair and comprehensive application, covering every aspect of the environmental issues related to our plant.'' Dr. Sleeter noted Belco had worked hard at programmes designed to keep a tighter rein on the emission and monitoring of potential pollutants.

Under the terms of the licence, the utility has placed air quality monitoring stations at three locations; Cemetery Lane, Juniper Hill and the Ridgeway property off Berkeley Road.

The company initiated a similar air quality monitoring programme in 1988-89 and data from that programme will serve as a benchmark for comparison. Later this year, BELCO will install two opacity metres -- which measure visible smoke emissions -- in the emission stacks of the old and new power stations.

Mr. Madeiros said in the licensing documents, the Environmental Authority recognised that over the years the utility has initiated several programmes to reduce the impact of emissions on the ambient air in the power station's vicinity.

That programme included the retirement of several old engines and a move to lower sulphur fuels.