St. Maarten Private Eye

KEEP DOLPHINS FREE IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS
Box 840 GT, Grand Cayman
Cayman Islands
Ph: 345-949-0707, Fax: 345-949-7165
E-Mail: info@dolphinfreecayman.org
www.dolphinfreecayman.org

October 5, 2006
OPEN LETTER BY EMAIL AND BY HAND
Cayman Islands Government
Grand Cayman
Cayman Islands

Attn: Hon. Arden Mclean
Minister Communications, Works and Infrastructure
Dear Sir:
RE: LAND-BASED SOURCES OF MARINE POLLUTION
Our organization continues to monitor government's support for the introduction of the captive-dolphin tourist amusement industry in the Cayman Islands.

Scientific studies have for years warned of the damage to the economically important marine environment that results from sewage, effluent, and other land-based sources of pollution.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region, referred to as the Cartagena Convention, was enacted in 1983.
Under the provisions of the Cartagena Convention, the Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife (SPAW) was enacted in 1990.
Regionally, the Land-Based Sources (LBS) Protocol of the Cartagena Convention is an instrument for dealing with environmental pollution reaching the marine environment from land-based sources. This Protocol is supported by a special subprogram of the Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) called the Assessment and Management of Environmental Pollution sub-programme (AMEP).
On March 24, 1983, the United Kingdom (UK) signed and on February 28, 1986, ratified the Cartagena Convention, and it has been extended to the Cayman Islands.
The SPAW Protocol, also drafted under the provisions of the Cartagena Convention, was signed by UK on March 18, 1990. However, the UK cannot ratify or accede to the SPAW Protocol until one of their Overseas Territories (OTs) enacts the enabling legislation.

The Cayman Islands is on record from 1997 at the Conference of the Parties (COP) in Kingston, Jamaica, as being committed to enact the enabling legislation.

As stated at the beginning of the preamble to the Bill for a Law, The National Conservation Law, one of the purposes of this proposed Cayman Islands legislation is to give effect to these multilateral environmental agreements and the which are all designed to preserve the economically important environment. Successive governments have continued to delay the enactment of this law which will protect our economy.

The UNEP, in studying the causes of damage to the marine environment, produced the report “Land-Based Sources of Marine Pollution” in October 2005 (http://www.cep.unep.org/marine-issues/plonearticlemultipage.2005-10-12.0116192785/plonearticle.2005-10-12.1813098429).
Extracts from this report state (the full report is attached):
Based on current information, the land-based pollutants constituting the greatest threat to coastal and marine ecosystems and to public health in the Wider Caribbean Region are sewage, oil hydrocarbons, sediments, nutrients, pesticides, litter and marine debris, and toxic wastes.

Overview of Land-Based Sources of Pollution, Introduction:
Sewage
Sewage is one of the most significant pollutants affecting the coastal environments of the Wider Caribbean Region, especially in the developing nations.
The inadequate number of sewage treatment plants in operation, combined with poor operating conditions of available treatment plants, and the disposal practices of discharging mostly untreated wastewater are likely to have an adverse effect on the quality of coastal waters. The population of coastal dwellers in most of the countries in the region continues to grow steadily, thus increasing the amounts of poorly treated or untreated sewage waste waters being discharged into the coastal waters. The discharge of sewage can cause public health problems either from contact with polluted waters or from consumption of contaminated fish or shellfish. The discharge of untreated sewage effluents also produces long-term adverse impacts on the ecology of critical coastal ecosystems in localized areas due to the contribution of nutrients and other pollutants. Pollution due to inadequate sewage disposal causes nutrient enrichment around population centers, and high nutrient levels and even eutrophication near treatment facilities and sewage outfalls. Increased nutrient concentrations promote increased algal and bacterial growth, degradation of seagrass and coral reef ecosystems, decreased fisheries production, along with risks to human health.
Nutrients
The discharge of nutrients into coastal waters is a major cause of eutrophication, especially in areas of limited water circulation. Nutrient enrichment is an increasing concern in the Wider Caribbean Region. The main nutrients are nitrogen and phosphorus compounds, and they enter coastal waters from point and non-point sources. Eutrophication may cause algal blooms, changes in the aquatic community structure, decreased biological diversity, fish kills and oxygen depletion events. The presence of nutrients in the water column enhances the growth of plants, and in some cases may cause algae to overgrow the corals or seagrasses that were previously present. Habitat degradation will in turn cause decreased fisheries production and loss of recreational and tourism potential.
…[C]oastal areas have seen increased population growth together with changes in adjacent land use, increasing the pressures on the marine and coastal areas. Sewage from coastal settlements is also a major source of nutrients in coastal waters.
To control the sources of nutrient enrichment and to reverse the adverse effects of eutrophication, it will be necessary to improve the effectiveness of nutrient reduction in sewage treatment plants and to control the runoff from non-point sources.
Tourism, which is of great importance to the economies of the Wider Caribbean Region, is directly dependent on the quality of the coastal environment. When eutrophication occurs, the ecological and aesthetic quality of the environment is altered and, in severe cases, recreational use is prevented.
The recent film by the Global Coral Reef Alliance, Tourism, Water Quality, and Coral Reef Health 2006 (http://www.biorock-thailand.com/tourismwaterquality512.html) (if you have difficulty viewing, download Adobe Flash Player from http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash) shows the killing of reefs by bacteria, algae, and disease in front of captive dolphin pens in Mexico and in front of the Cayman Turtle Farm. The sewage and trade effluent causing the death of the corals results from the animals urinating and defecating into their swimming ponds. The discharge of untreated mammalian sewage and trade effluent into the marine environment adds harmful nutrients, bacteria and other biological substances. Adding dolphin wastes to the existing turtle wastes in Cayman will significantly expand the area of damaged reef. The same effects can be seen on a larger scale in the North Sound near the garbage dump, wherever there is nutrient runoff from golf courses and septic tank discharges seep into the ocean along Seven Mile beach.

The Water Authority (WA), a statutory authority established by the Water Authority Law, is responsible for administering the Water Authority Law. The WA is accountable to your Ministry in the discharge of these responsibilities. The WA is the agency responsible for the licensing, regulation of licensees, and monitoring of sewage and trade effluent discharges into the marine environment.
The Hon. Kurt Tibbetts, Leader of Government Business, said on September 28, 2006, Freedom of Information Day, that “Transparency of administration of these beloved isles is what is sought after by this government.”. We believe that this is the indeed the intention of your government. As we continue to request information from various agencies of government on many subjects, we fully expect that your government will live up to our expectations.
In our continued research into government’s discharge of its responsibilities and compliance with our laws and multilateral environmental agreements as they relate to its support for the introduction of the captive dolphin industry, we hereby request information and clarification on the following:
1. Some sections of the expanded Cayman Turtle Farm (CTF) facility are now operating.
1.1 Has CTF obtained a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) for all currently operating sections of the expanded CTF?
2. We are aware from press reports that, as a condition of permitting the expansion of CTF, the WA required an Antidegradation Study (ADS).
2.1 What is the date that the CTF submitted their “final” ADS to the WA?
3. If the answer to No. 2 is yes, did the WA accept this as the final CTF ADS?
4. If the answer to No. 2 is yes, did the WA require an independent third-party review of the CTF ADS?
5. Did CTF obtain from the WA a License to Discharge (sewage or trade effluent) into the marine environment or deep wells before discharging sewage or trade effluent from the expanded CTF into the marine environment or deep wells?
6. If the answer to No. 5 is no, what are the consequences to CTF for their illegal discharge of sewage and trade effluent into the marine environment or deep wells?
7. If the answer to No. 5 is no, what action is the WA taking against CTF?
8. Do the Water Authority Law and Marine Conservation Law apply equally to government entities and cruise ships and to private citizens and private sector businesses, or are government entities exempt from complying with the Water Authority Law and Marine Conservation Law without consequences?
9. If the answer to No. 8 is that the laws apply equally, does the WA require compliance and enforce the consequences of non-compliance equally with respect to government and to private citizens and private sector businesses, or are government entities exempt from complying with the Water Authority Law without consequences?
10. In the Cayman Islands, some bodies of seawater bordering our shores are open to the ocean without reef systems (e.g., North West Point). Other bodies of seawater are protected by fringing reef systems (e.g., North Sound), which modify the action of the ocean currents, in some cases establishing their own internal current systems, with greatly reduced natural water changes (there are various scientific studies on this subject since the late 1960s – e.g., by Dr Harry H. Roberts, Louisiana State University).
When licensing sewage and effluent discharges, does the WA require all applicants to conform to one standard or do they have multiple standards, specific to the receiving body of seawater?
11. What are the water quality standards of the Water Authority Law and the WA with respect to water permitted to be discharged into the marine environment? If there is more than one standard, list the different standards.
12. What is the basis upon which these standard(s) are established?
13. Has the existing assimilative capacity for nutrients in the North Sound been determined before the WA issues additional Licenses to Discharge sewage and trade effluent, including nutrients, into this economically important body of water?
14. Does the WA issue Licenses to Discharge for land-based sources of pollution – e.g., sewage and trade effluents – that are harmful to the environment?
15. What systems does the WA have in place for monitoring licensees’ effluent discharge for compliance?
16. In general, what evidence exists to show that the WA is continually effectively executing their responsibility for monitoring the compliance of discharge licensees with the requirements of their licenses?
17. Did the sewage and trade effluent discharge license application from the CTF include the sewage and trade effluent discharge originating from the government-supported proposed captive dolphin facilities on land leased by CTF to Dolphin Discovery (DD)?
18. Did the CTF ADS include the sewage and trade effluent discharge originating from the government-supported proposed DD captive dolphin facilities that will be discharged into the CTF disposal stream, and the flow into the sea of the combined untreated sewage and trade effluent from both operations?
19. Construction has begun at the Dolphin Cove (DC) site in the North Sound.
We are aware from press reports several years ago that, as a condition, the government required an Antidegradation Study (ADS).
Did DC submit a completed Antidegradation Study (ADS) to government prior to the commencement of construction?
19.1 On what date did the DC submit their “final” ADS to the WA?
20. If the answer to No. 19 is yes, did the WA accept this as the “final” ADS?
21. If the answer to No. 19 is yes, did government require an independent third-party review of the ADS?
22. Prior to commencement of construction at the DC site, did the WA issue a License to Discharge (sewage and trade effluent) into the North Sound marine environment?
We hereby request copies (in electronic format if available) of the following:
1. Terms of reference for both the CTF and DC ADS.
2. The CTF ADS, interim and final.
3. The CTF ADS third-party review.
4. Comments, if any, by the WA on the CTF ADS and the CTF ADS third-party review.
5. Comments, if any, by the Department of Environment (DoE) on the CTF ADS and the CTF ADS third-party review.
6. CTF Discharge Permit.
7. The DC ADS, interim and final.
8. The DC ADS third-party review.
9. Comments, if any, by the WA on the DC ADS and the DC ADS third-party review.
10. Comments, if any, by the Department of Environment (DOE) on the DC ADS and the DC ADS third-party review.
11. DC Discharge Permit.
Thanks in advance for your prompt response.
Best wishes

William H. Adam
KEEP DOLPHINS FREE IN THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
~Mahatma Gandhi

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