Adrian Frater, News Editor

WESTERN BUREAU:

The dispute between residents of the 31 communities surrounding the controversial Royale Rest Cemetery in Burnt Ground, Hanover, and the developers of the burial site, Delapenha's Funeral Home, is now at a critical juncture.

The Ramble Community Development Council (CDC), which is challenging the environmental impact assessment (EIA), which Environment Minister Rudyard Spencer signed off on in January, granting the developers of the cemetery permission to start burying bodies, is now preparing a document outlining its concerns, to be sent to Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

According to the residents, who have thwarted several attempts to have burials at Royale Rest, they have scientific proof that a cemetery in the area would lead to wholesale contamination of their underground water supply, which empties into the Great River water supply, the major source of domestic water in western Jamaica.

The situation took an interesting twist in Parliament last week when Water Minister Horace Chang declared that the residents' concerns were unwarranted. He was challenged by Member of Parliament D.K. Duncan, who asked: "If in 20 years' time, contamination takes place, are you prepared to live with the blood of the citizens of Ramble and its environment on your head?"

At the heart of the residents' concerns are the use of the chemical, formaldehyde, a colourless, pungent gas which is used in embalming bodies, an EIA done by government-appointed scientist, Dr Ravidya Burrowes, which they claimed is seriously flawed, and the soil type under the ground in the area.

Ccorrosion of the alimentary canal

According to Ambleton Wray, chairman of the CDC, based on their own research and that of the experts whose services they have solicited, they have learned that formaldehyde corrodes the alimentary canal and can cause or encourage the growth of a cancer.

"The scientists have concluded that once formaldehyde gets into the water, there is no scientific way of removing it," said Wray. "So, we cannot allow this dangerous chemical to get into our water, because to do so, would be to expose ourselves to serious danger."

Noted geologist, Basil Young, a 37-year veteran in his field, and hydrogeologist, Michael White, who did extensive studies on the underground water-supply system in the Burnt Ground area prior to the current controversy, are both siding with the residents in their claim that it is unsafe to site a cemetery in the area.

"When you add chemicals to bodies and decomposition takes place, then you will have a pollutant, and this pollutant must not get into your water," said Young. "If the bodies were only being iced and buried, it would be a different matter. the danger is in the embalming process."

Basis of permission

In taking issue with aspects of the EIA, which forms the basis of permission granted for the use of the cemetery, White pointed out conclusions, which, he said, were not consistent with his own findings, which dated back to research he did decades ago.

Some of the critical areas of conflicting positions are as follows:

The EIA: Burial will take place in totally sealed vaults, built of reinforced concrete, to contain the human remains permanently within the vault, i.e. no leakage into the subsurface.

White: It is unlikely that vault construction would be properly supervised even in the short term, with the likelihood that the vaults would develop cracks and their desired integrity readily compromised. The cracks would be induced by differential settlement of the soil and earthquake tremors.

The EIA: The soil into which the vault would, be constructed has a relatively low-infiltration capacity and permeability, so even if there was leakage from the vaults, it would not percolate down to the water table.

White: The soil survey used by the Ministry of Agriculture describes the soil on the site of the proposed cemetery as Chudleigh clay loam, and assigns to it a moderate to high internal drainage capacity. Given the hydraulic characteristics, the soil would not be expected to function as an impermeable layer and leakage from the vault could be expected to percolate to the underlying aquifer (underground storage areas or reservoirs).

The EIA: In the event that the leachate (water that collects contaminants as it trickles through the soil) from the cemetery somehow managed to percolate down to the Great River limestone aquifer, it would not flow to contaminate springs and/or the Great River because of its low-aquifer permeability. The EIA concluded that the movement of leachate to downstream springs and/or the Great River would require a travel time of 150 years.

White: Whereas the Great River limestone aquifer does not have high permeability, it is karstified (an area of irregular limestone in which erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns) and behaves like all other limestone aquifers in Jamaica. It is recharged primarily by rainfall infiltration via close depressions drained by sinkholes. In a 1981 study, I identified five springs downstream of Burnt Ground - proof that the limestone aquifer in the area is karstified. Spring flows as high as 12 million imperial gallons per day have been measured at one of these springs. In similar karstified limestone in the Queen of Spain Valley, in Trelawny, underground dye traces have confirmed groundwater flow rates of one mile per day.

Possible contamination

With Delapenha's Funeral Home, which has invested some $50 million into the construction of the cemetery, now anxious to maximise its investment, and the residents, who are adamant that they will not expose themselves to possible contamination, the situation has become contentions.

Latest developments

The latest developments are outlined below: