GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands (CNS) – Officials on the ReGen project, the proposed deal between the Cayman Islands government and dart to build waste-to-energy and recycling facilities at the George Town dump, have said the draft environmental impact assessment will be available to the public this Friday, 18 August. As a result, public meetings will begin next week.
However, the CIG and Dart have still not finalised the costly and controversial deal. Earlier this month, the government announced that the talks had still not concluded and the deadline to sign the agreement had been extended to September. CNS understands that the talks are stalled over the question of value for money for the public purse.
In the meantime, Dart has been allowed to work on capping and remediating the original dump site. The technical experts began work in the summer of 2021 on the EIA in anticipation of the agreement between the parties being finalised before the assessment was complete. The assessment had been expected to take around a year to complete.
But it is now more than two years since Dart and other stakeholders held a series of public meetings ahead of the terms of reference being set to guide the EIA. Already plagued with delays the public consultation phase for the project will get underway next week.
Meetings will be held on
Monday, 28 August, at the Harquail Theatre;
Tuesday, 29 August, at the John Gray Memorial Church Hall, West Bay;
Wednesday, 30 August, at the Mary Miller Hall, Red Bay.
All meetings start at 6:00pm.
The draft environmental statement will be published and available to download on 18 August from the Department of Environment and ReGen websites.
Hard copies will also be available on the same day at the Government Administration Building on Elgin Avenue, at the public libraries in George Town, West Bay and Bodden Town, at the District Administration Building on Cayman Brac and National Trust House on Little Cayman.
