Environment is a "ticking time bomb", campaigners claim

Thursday 19 January 2017

Carcinogens under the Esplanade car park, seafood that needs to be cleansed for 44 hours before it's fit for human consumption and bacteria so dense it can’t properly be counted - these are just some of the claims in a new report alleging that 20 years of ecological inaction may have turned the Island into an “environmental time bomb.”

Published today by campaign group Save Our Shorelines Jersey (SOSJ), the controversial report also claims that multiple warnings from the group have been ignored.

Pictured: The report released today by Save Our Shores Jersey, which has been submitted to the Environment, Infrastructure and Housing Panel.

It comes following the recent news of a French jogger’s death, which sparked claims in the national media that it may have been due to potentially toxic fumes emitted by sea lettuce – an increasingly common presence on St Aubin’s Bay in recent years.

SOSJ say that the spike in sea lettuce is due to contaminated water with “illegally high nitrate levels” – a result of agricultural fertilisers – passing through Bellozane Sewage Treatment Works at a rate of 18 million gallons per day.

As a result, SOSJ had advocated ploughing furrows into the beach to dislodge the unsightly weed before it takes root but said that the States decided not to heed the advice:

“Instead we see a recurring annual cycle where vast amounts of sea lettuce bloom throughout the summer and autumn, blighting what was once a beautiful and popular Bay for locals, tourists and businesses,” the report said.

Pictured: At one point, the quantities of sea lettuce on St Aubin's Bay were so vast that they had to be bulldozed.

But this was far from the first instance of a disregarded warning, according to the report.

It claims that this has occurred since the 1990s, with the building of the Esplanade Car park.

During its construction, asbestos and ash were dumped on what was the beach – 11 metres below present ground level – the report claims.

“The fill across the Waterfront site, and indeed all the reclaimed land prior to 1995, is extremely toxic and highly potent heavy metals are available to the marine environment.”

At the time, however, the Public Services Department – since replaced by the Infrastructure Department – maintained that “everything was perfectly safe.”

Now they fear that asbestos – a known carcinogen – could be released into the air during excavations necessary to build the new International Finance Centre (IFC).

Pictured: Building 4 of the JIFC, which is being built on the Esplanade Carpark site.

A similar situation arose at La Collette, where fill from an excavation that was initially considered “inert”, was found to contain toxic ash and asbestos.

SOSJ subsequently recommended that the loads should go into expensive lined ash pits, but the contractors instead opted to hand-sort the materials.

Photos later emerged of workers in, “…full hazmat suits excavating contaminated fill just a few metres away [from babies and toddlers], with only shutter-ply between them.”

Pictured: Construction site workers operate in full hazmat suits, with young children just metres away. (Screenshot: Bailiwick Express/SOSJ Report)

The SOSJ report also refers to recent testing of First Tower outflow, which it says found that the colonies of bacteria were too dense to count, as Bellozane’s UV water disinfection process only manages to penetrate “the top few millimetres” of water during times of high-flow or heavy rain. 

The group believe that such contamination could see Jersey’s famous seafood industry take a knock, with juvenile oysters reported to have suffered mortality rates of 80%. IT says that those that do survive, meanwhile, must be taken to special filtration tanks, “…and left for 44 hours to cleanse them before they can be eaten.

Such issues could have been avoided at least in part, the report asserts, if the Department for the Environment hadn’t been absorbed into the Planning Department – both of which are presided over by one Minister.

Going forward, SOSJ are asking for a dedicated Minister for the Environment to counteract the “downgrading” of ecological issues on the States’ agenda.

“Only five of the successful candidates in the last election mentioned the environment in their manifesto, and then only in passing,” the report lamented.

The proposed new role, established alongside a working party to address the sea lettuce problem, should hopefully get the gears in motion to fully eradicate the issue.

“We sincerely hope we shall see positive action very soon,” the report concluded.