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Once was a time when it was widely felt that as Belize’s only oil producer and a main revenue source for government, Belize Natural Energy could “get over” on the Department of the Environment. But things have changed in Belmopan and a sure sign of that will come tomorrow when BNE is made to appear in San Ignacio Magistrate’s Court charged for en environmental offence.

It’s not a major offence: the non reporting of an oil spill....but it is significant that it has gotten to this stage without executive intercession – that’s probably a first. On February 12th the DOE presented a summons for BNE to appear in San Ignacio Magistrate’s Court tomorrow for non reporting of an oil spill.

According to our reports, the spill happened in the first week of February, when what the Department of the Environment estimates was 10 barrels of oil spilled into a creek within BNE’s compound in the Iguana Creek area. According to Chief Environmental Officer Martin Allegria, the chief concern is that the oil could drain off into the Iguana Creek proper which is a tributary of the Belize River. He claims that BNE did not report it to his office and when DOE got there, BNE staffers had already taken measures to mop it up.

BNE has highly specialized equipment to conduct oil spill cleanups. Still, it’s the law and the requirements of their compliance plan that it be reported to the department. And they’ve been using it because according to Allegria, this is the third oil spill since November. Tomorrow, we’ll tell you how it went in court.