Company Has Remedied Environmental Breaches

Burke says that during a routine site visit by the Department of the Environment, they were informed that those works should not have been done without the express permission of the Department. And that is when they were issued, in writing, with an enforcement order. Since that point, with the supervision of the pertinent authorities, Burke says the company did as instructed.

On the Phone: Beverly Burke, Santander Representative, Belize

“Yes we have, and actually after the meeting held I think the sixth of July with both the C.E.O. and the Chief Environmental Officer and based on their instructions the following day which was the seventh we had the equipment in the property supervised by the Department of the Environment where we did the necessary return of earth to the drains that we had put in, and that was dealing with the issue the way they instructed us to. The Department does feel that not having permission from them to put in those drains is a breach of the environmental compliance and they are forced – they state that we will be fined. We have not gotten an official fine notice from the Department of the Environment, but we continue dialoguing with them and our intention is definitely to address the issue at hand and to make all possible rectification of the issues.”