Curacao refinery sputters on
WILLEMSTAD (Reuters) - An oil refinery dating from WorldWar I billows toxins over the Caribbean island of Curacao andsickens some residents, but under the pressure of localeconomic need Curacao allows it to continue operating.
The Isla refinery, operated by Venezuelan state oil companyPDVSA, faces growing complaints by residents and severallawsuits charging its industrial emissions cause healthproblems ranging from chronic coughing to cancer.
A Curacao court last year, citing a study estimating eachyear 18 people die prematurely from exposure to contaminants,threatened to close it if it cannot meet emissions standards.
Curacao commissioned the study from Dutch consultingcompany ECORYS in 2005, but didn't make it public. ECORYS toldReuters it could not provide a copy of the study because of anagreement with the client.
Humane Care Foundation, a local environmental group, saysemissions of sulphur dioxide, which can cause permanent lungdamage, are about twice the limits allowed by Isla's license.The group says the data was collected by the refinery itself.
It also says refinery emissions of particulate matter, finedust that can cause cancer, are dangerously high. Isla hasdenied excessive particulate matter emissions.
The court decision is a rebuke to PDVSA, which pridesitself on social responsibility inspired by VenezuelanPresident Hugo Chavez.
But PDVSA is under pressure to keep the 320,000 barrel perday facility running as it struggles with repeated outages atits own refineries in Venezuela. Gasoline from Isla is exportedmainly to other Caribbean nations and South America.
With little money or support for upgrading Isla and in needof the jobs generated by the refinery, Curacao seems content tolet PDVSA keep running it as long as courts allow.
"There is no scientific study whatsoever that the refineryis causing death or anything like that," said Charles Cooper, aCuracao legislator whose party is allied with Curacao'sgoverning party and who also works for PDVSA.
Public Health Commissioner Humphrey Davelaar did notrespond to requests for comment. An Isla spokeswoman said shecould not comment and a PDVSA spokesman did not respond to anemail requesting comment.
Located 40 miles off the Venezuelan coast, Curacao becamean affluent trading port in the Atlantic slave trade in the17th and 18th centuries. Today a territory of the NetherlandsKingdom, it attracts tourists with its beaches, scuba divingand historic Dutch colonial architecture.
In April the Netherlands government urged the island to cutemissions at Isla, located in the heart of the capital ofWillemstad on the site of a former slave market.
Shell opened Isla in 1918 to process Venezuela's firstcrude oil, and it served as a major supplier to the Allies inWorld War II.
By 1985, it was obsolete and plagued by environmental woes,and Shell sold it to Curacao for a symbolic $1 (50 pence). Theisland quickly leased it to Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA,which has made few major investments to reduce emissions thatproduce heavy odours in the area around Isla.
Marisela Cijntje, who teaches Spanish at the MariaImmaculata Lyceum downwind from the refinery, says the stenchis sometimes so overwhelming the school has to suspend classes,
"Sometimes I get out of my car and I can see the smoke or Ican smell it," said Cijntje. "It gives me a headache reallyquickly, but most of the time I just have to keep teaching."
TOXIC EMISSIONS
Critics say PDVSA, which has been in talks to buy therefinery for two years, provides few benefits to the island.
They note this accusation almost mirror Chavez's chargesthat private oil companies "looted" Venezuela by dodging taxesand failing to make investments that would have curtailedenvironmental damage.
Curacao took in less than 1 percent of Isla's 2007 sales of$5 billion (2.51 billion pounds), receiving a rent payment ofless than $20 million and almost no taxes. By contrast, PDVSAsays that in Venezuela some 45 percent of its sales in 2007went to government coffers and social programs.
"Nowhere else in the world could a multi-million dollarcompany like PDVSA come and do something like this," saidMaurits Martis, 59, who runs a construction equipment shopacross the road from Isla.
Critics also note that islanders pay around $1.20 per litrefor gasoline produced at Isla, compared with the $0.03 perlitre paid by Venezuelans, who have the world's cheapest.
They also say the refinery's 1,500 jobs are only around 2percent of the island's workforce of some 70,000. Governmentofficials did answer requests for official workforce figures.
Isla says 2007 Curacao social investments were $5.2million, some of which paid to put air conditioners in schoolsdownwind from the refinery.
Refinery Director Pedro Jimenez in May said Isla was beingsingled out for polluting and that it would only address theproblem in conjunction with other polluting industries.
Many on the island defend the refinery because of the jobsit provides. Workers at the refinery marched in June to protesta possible closure of Isla and accused the Netherlands ofmeddling in the island's internal affairs.
And talk of its closure alarms even those who suffer fromthe emissions.
Sharvienne Hersilia, 19, a student at Maria Immaculata,says the fumes give her headaches and aggravate her asthma. Butshe thinks Isla should modernize operations, not close down.
"Closing it isn't an option because a lot of fatherssupport their families by working there," she said.
(Additional reporting by Jorge Silva, Sebastian Rocandio,Efrain Adrade, Irasi Jimenez and Carolina Nicolaas inWillemstad, Janet Mcgurty in New York and Ank Kuipers inParamaribo)