Trinidad's Cedros Peninsula on Lock Down for Anti-Alcoa Protest

In protest of Alcoa Inc's soil testing exercises in the Cedros Peninsula in the Caribbean Island of Trinidad, residents effectively locked down the Southwestern peninsula by felling trees to block the only access road to the Peninsula last Thursday Sept. 14th.

The residents of the Cedros Peninsula see what Alcoa claims to be 'soil testing' as nothing more than intimidation tactics on the part of Alcoa. Alcoa's spokesperson Wade Hughes claimed in recent news reports that their incursions onto the area are part of an Environmental Impact Assessment as required by the Environmental Management Authority. Yet, soil testing by Alcoa on the premises was already done in January of 2005 and the test results had been already submitted with Alcoa's recent application to the EMA.

Residents fear a repeat of the happenings in Iceland where Alcoa proceeded to build an aluminum smelter plant without having the proper environmental clearances and despite a valid court conviction to that fact.

In a recent poll conducted by the Trinidad Guardian newspaper, only 17% of Trinidad's population was in favor of the controversial Alcoa aluminum smelter plant.

Alcoa's incursion into the Cedros Peninsula for what they claim to be 'soil testing' was done under heavy armed police guard and almost cost an 18 month old child's life when a tractor carrying heavy equipment forced its way through the protesters. Even a recent 'public consultation' by Alcoa regarding the smelter plant was done while the building was surrounded by armed police officers.

The residents of Trinidad's Southwestern peninsula are opposing the controversial project on several points:

The smelter plant (and another smelter plant by one of Alcoa's competitors are planned to be built on a large water system (aquifer) that supplies clean drinking water to a large part of South Trinidad's population. This water system is the single largest on the Island. Residents feel that the proposed 270,000 pounds of Fluoride emissions from the Alcoa smelter and the many other toxic emission that Alcoa admits to in their own Environmental Clearance application will permanently damage this important water source.

Trinidadians are also genuinely concerned about the secrecy surrounding the Alcoa deal with the Trinidad government. Very little details have been made public by Alcoa or the Government. What is known is that a subsidized supply of natural gas for electricity generation was promised to Alcoa for the next 30 years. According to official government statistics, Trinidad only has 15 years of proven gas reserves left. This offers great concerns regarding the economic future of Trinidad and Tobago.

Another twist to the gas supply dilemma is that the Trinidad government has disclosed in the newspapers that it is hoping to use Venezuelan gas supplies once the 15 years of proven reserves run out which residents feel could be seen as a precursor to possible military action against Venezuela if Venezuela refuses to supply natural gas to power an 100% US-owned Aluminum smelter only 3 miles from their coastal borders.

There is also great concern about the legal legitimacy of the project as important Environmental applications have been filed containing false and inaccurate information with omitted or missing data and information throughout.

There are further great concerns about residents safety as Alcoa's smelter plant is planned at the entrance of the Cedros Peninsula with only one access road leading in and out. The smelter will have a 30" natural gas pipeline feeding a 600mW power plant and is located only about 2 miles from one of the world's largest LNG terminals and 2 miles from a major earthquake fault line, the Los Bajos fault.

Safety of LNG and Natural Gas is a major concern in the US and strict safety guidelines are in effect to prevent natural gas disasters as they happened in Nigeria and Algeria not too long ago. None of these safety guidelines are in effect or being followed in Trinidad.

Alcoa's Kevin Lowery recently claimed that residents of the affected area are "bending backward to help Alcoa" The reality is that the few residents that have agreed to the soil testing exercise by Alcoa have done so under threat of losing their property. Alcoa so far has painted a very distorted picture of the situation regarding their Trinidad Aluminum Smelter project to the international press.

The residents of the Cedros Peninsula invite (no, beg!) the international press to come down to Trinidad to get the true story on this Alcoa project and to talk to the residents and their fellow journalists in Trinidad.

Protests will continue and are likely to intensify during the next days and weeks as residents of Trinidad's Southwestern Peninsula are determined to stop the Alcoa smelter project.