Green Engineering Environmental Services expert Johan Caesar, left, and environmental scientist Dave Jacob survey an area during yesterday’s preliminary visit to the site where a chemical fire occurred in Debe last month.

Photo: Sookdeo Baney

BY RADHICA SOOKRAJ

Residents of Cuchawan Trace, Debe, yesterday called on the Environmental Management Authority to clear up the area, even as phase one of an environmental assessment study continued at a chemical site there.

But EMA officials said it was still uncertain how soon the site would be cleared.

EMA corporate communications officer Kirk Jean-Baptiste said Green Engineering Environmental Services had been contracted to do the assessment.

He said the area could only be cleared up after the assessment was completed.

Managing director of GEES, Dave Jacob, and environmental scientist Johan Caesar were involved in the exercise.

Jacob could not say how long the assessment would take, noting, “This is just a phase one environmental assessment. We will provide a report to the EMA who will decide the next step.”

Baptiste said the private environmental group is well equipped to determine the nature of the chemicals stored at the facility.

“The team is conducting tests and going through the rudiments of the explosion. Samples will be taken and those samples will be tested to determine what they are,” Jean-Baptiste said.

But residents of the area said the EMA was taking too long to clear the burnt-out site.