A series of articles have appeared in local print media critical of the multi-purpose port being planned for eastern Toco Bay. In response, we note that we were engaged in 2017 to confirm the site selection for this port and to conceptually plan, design and carry out preliminary engineering for it. This assignment is similar to others that we have undertaken over the past 50 years for Jamaica, St Kitts, Saint Lucia, and Grenada, where the related sites have similar kinds of eco-systems as at Toco. However, the criticisms there have been less intense. Since we have been operating in T&T from 1980 we have become familiar with such zeal and exuberance.
In a healthy democracy, debate is essential and hence we welcome responsible comments in the print media about various aspects of the port proposed at Toco. However, it is felt that some of the comments and observations may have been made through lack of information about the details of modalities and studies—environmental, engineering, and socio-economic—utilised in arriving at the port design presented at the public consultation of April 12, 2019.
We offer further explanations continuing from an article published in the Sunday Guardian:
11. Comments by some infer that Balandra Bay was recommended by IMA as a preferred port site, which is not the case. In terms of the impact on marine benthos by the port, IMA as noted at ‘7’ did not express any preference between Toco and Balandra. It clearly states that both sites are devoid of ‘critical habitat’. Yet recent articles in the press tend to oppose that informed opinion.
12. Hence port planning, engineering, and socio-economic consideration by experienced professionals in related fields should dictate the final choice between the two. Related opinion has been unequivocally expressed by IMA’s 1988 study, it states.
“However, this bay (Toco) does not possess a critical habitat and therefore the socio-economic factors being considered for developing port and harbour facilities at this bay should outweigh the disadvantages of destroying its natural ecosystems.” (Page 90)
As to this critical socio-economic criteria, Toco should outweigh Balandra, since,
(i) It is central to the economic opportunity zone of scenic coastal development between Matelot and the easternmost Galera Point.
(ii) It has by far the largest concentration of population in the area, and thus benefit most from such a port plus a highway development.
(iii) It has a relatively more developed civic and infrastructural facilities—schools, health, etcetera.
13. The seabridge study team using a points rating system also selected Toco Bay as the preferred site. Balandra is outside that opportunity zone and to the south of easternmost Galera Point. Also, for the ferry link, Balandra is further from Scarborough than Toco and is outside the normal route from Trinidad to Tobago, and hence cannot easily be an in-between stop.
14. It is unfortunate that a recent article in local media refers to the 1990 seabridge feasibility study as being privately funded and hence presumably tainted. Similar connotations are inferred upon the 2000 study. The 1990 study was commissioned and funded by ‘The Trinidad and Tobago Industrial Corporation’, a government of T&T entity and consisted of experts, all local, in related fields. Hence no better informed and objective study could have been carried out as to the selection of a site for a port for northeast Trinidad.
CONCEPTUAL DESIGN, PRELIMINARY
ENG AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
OF THE MULTI-PURPOSE PORT
15. The design consultant together with MOWT and NIDCO, after studying the IMA report, the seabridge feasibility study, and independently also concluded that the Toco Bay east side should be the chosen location for the multi-purpose port for north-east Trinidad, and also the termination point for the highway from Valencia.
16. In defining the scope of services to be provided by the design consultant, NIDCO specified the need for a requisite amount of ecological and environmental studies to be undertaken, which should inform and guide the design process. We recruited the services of respected entities with extensive local and Caribbean experience in these fields to carry out these studies, which formed key inputs in the design process and the evolution of the port design as presented at the Toco public consultation on April 12, 2019, (see attached image). Ongoing detailed EIA studies will elaborate upon these issues.
17. Historically ports in the Eastern Caribbean have been located on the leeward side of the islands and in most cases in natural harbours. This is not the case for the northeast coast of Trinidad where there are no natural harbours and is exposed, hence will require significant protection from extreme wave conditions generated by hurricanes. Toco or Grand Riviere or Balandra will require varying lengths of major breakwaters to withstand forces from and protect the harbour(s) from six-seven metre high waves. This was central to the planning of the port at Toco, where the breakwater is approximately 450 meters long on the north face and of similar length on the northwest face.
18. We submitted our conceptual design and preliminary engineering report in November 2017. The recommended multi-purpose port layout at the Toco Bay was amongst other things, dictated by,
(i) Site selection between contending sites to be based on maximum socio-economic benefits.
(ii) Specified facilities to be provided for. In this context, see also observations at ‘21’ below
(iii) The absence of critical marine habitat under the footprint.
(iv) A site with a significant lack of sedimentation and erosion.
(v) A requirement for a significant breakwater to protect the harbour structures from major damage, likely to result
from probable six-seven metre high hurricane generated
extreme wave conditions with a return period of 100
years, emanating from an arc NW to NE.
(vi) The breakwater should also significantly degrade and diffract the normal heavy wave conditions, 2.0-2.5 metre high, and thus create a wave regime within the harbour that meets the internationally accepted maximum wave heights for different kinds of vessels moored within. All as prescribed by PIANC, British and US Standards.
(vii) A 15m wide sea-level channel shall separate the entire port from the shoreline.
(viii) In spite of the all too apparent rocky and hard strata seabed, deepening of the harbour using dynamite blasting is to be avoided. Thus the harbour layout needs to be sited in requisite depths, which in turn provides areas in shallower waters where reclamation for landside facilities, using hydraulic dredge fill/borrow can be undertaken.
(ix) The Toco Bay shoreline and related hinterland shall not be altered to create landside facilities, and thus negatively impact the existing picturesque and tranquil ambiance. As noted, all landside facilities will be sited on reclaimed lands. Even for construction, contractors’ storage, concreting and pre-casting and other site facilities are
• to be located on lands to be reclaimed and not on existing lands. Thus no land acquisition is required and hence planned for.
(x) The buried cables in the seabed, supplying HV electrical power to Tobago shall not be impeded.
(xi) Land reclamation using landfill is to be avoided. This will avoid all excessive heavy traffic and thus also avoid damage to the existing fragile, narrow and winding roads.
(xii) All fill material to be barged (rock armouring) and dredged hydraulic fill from a dredged area up to 1000 m from the proposed reclamation for the port.
19. In addition, the port including the breakwater has been planned and designed to criteria established in respected International Design Codes, Standards and Recommendations for ports, such as British Standard 6349 and PIANC recommendations. Similar US and Japanese publications were also consulted. BS 6349 clearly requires the designer to study, and cater for physical oceanographic and environmental factors such as a) Wind, b) Waves—extreme and operational, c) Currents, d) Sedimentation and erosion, e) Tidal variations, f) Storm surges, g) Climatic sea level change, h) Water quality changes and others. In addition, a scoping assessment of the impact on marine and terrestrial ecology is also required, which were also carried out.
20. Certain negative comments as to the size of the port have been published. Even without the recommendations of a multi-purpose port in the 1990 feasibility study, the exposed north-east coast of Trinidad, necessitates a major breakwater of adequate size and length to provide the requisite protection noted at ‘17’ and ‘18’ shown in image, This in turn creates additional harbour acreages in shallower waters, where smaller boats, yachts 15-25m long in a marina and fishing vessels ten-15 m long can be safely moored with minimal additional costs. In addition, the leeward side of the 450 metre long northwest leg of the breakwater will serve as the likely berths for the servicing of energy sector workboats. 50-100 m long, with an attached platform structure of relatively lower cost given the protection offered by the breakwater.
21. These ‘by-product’ facilities will also create additional revenue streams to pay for the investment in this core infrastructure project.
EMA, CEC, AND THE TOR
FOR THE ONGOING EIA
22. An application for a certificate of environmental clearance (CEC) to EMA was made in early 2018. Most of the rest of 2018 was spent in a constructive dialogue with EMA as to the need and extent of further environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies, as compared to those already conducted by IMA (1988), the Seabridge Study Team (1990) and at the Conceptual and Preliminary Engineering Design Stage in 2017. It was felt that the nature and extent of criticisms that would accompany the announcement of building such a port, EMA had to resort to a full all-encompassing EIA study to be undertaken, which was hence specified by EMA in its TOR for the EIA study.
23. Similarly, in recognition of the intensity of such criticisms, NIDCO sought to engage an internationally well-respected EIA firm to carry out such studies. Hence ERM was engaged after considerable dialogue on the scope of services. ERM operates out of 40 separate countries in the world and have previously carried out such studies for energy companies in Trinidad and is now involved in Guyana. Hence it is not a stranger to the EIA issues of the Caribbean. To avoid coordination problems between the designer, including the design of the port presented plus previous EIA studies, with the work of ERM, the design consultant Arun Buch and Associates Ltd will continue to liaise and work with ERM.
CONSULTATION, COMMENTS
IN MEDIA, AND OBJECTIVITY:
24. It has been implied in the press and on April 12 that consultations with the stakeholders have not been undertaken before. Consultations at various levels in Trinidad would have been undertaken in the 1970s, 1988 (IMA), 1990 (Seabridge Team), and in 2017, albeit amongst informed and concerned groups and elected representatives of the people. Others would have been aware of this project and may have made representations through their elected representatives and similar bodies.
25. Since planning and design of a national port, in an exposed and eco-sensitive location like northeast Trinidad, is a highly technical exercise and is subject to criteria established in International Codes and Standards, the related information cannot be readily disseminated to the general public through the local press. But now that the Government has established a clear path towards implementing this core infrastructure project and hence
26. It would have been preferable for media houses publishing such articles, particularly from its recognised journalists or correspondents, to approach the developers of the port—NIDCO—on responses before it goes onto to publish lengthy criticisms like the ones that appeared recently in ‘Express’ in four parts.
27. In doing so, it would accept the premise that the Toco port constitutes a major thrust towards the much desired by all, including the media, diversification of the economy. This, in turn, would avoid skepticism in the general public towards this thrust. Similar responsibility exists with the public of Trinidad, which is literate and articulate.