Water Authority grants permit for Dolphin poop

(CNS): Despite the controversy and what local environmental activists claim will put the surrounding reefs at risk, the Water Authority has issued a variation to the marine discharge permit held by the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm to include the effluent discharge from Dolphin Discovery Cayman Ltd. In a statement issued yesterday afternoon the Water Authority said that back in October 2008 it had granted a discharge permit to the Turtle Farm with the restriction that only effluent from the turtle breeding pond and the commercial turtle tanks could be discharged into the ocean, but it said it had now added the dolphin facility.

“In the course of the last 2 months both the Turtle Farm and Dolphin Discovery provided further specific details on their operations to satisfy the conditions of the Water Authority to grant the variation of the original permit to include the discharge from the dolphin lagoon,” the authority stated.

It said the permit does includes specific conditions to monitor water quality and flows and the information obtained from this monitoring programme is essential to determine effective interventions to reduce the impact of the waste discharge on the marine environment. “The Water Authority appreciates the high level of commitment of the Turtle Farm to reduce their environmental impacts; this will result in a win-win situation, not only for the Turtle Farm and the Water Authority, but for the Cayman Islands as a whole, because our precious marine environment will improve as a result of this permit,” said Dr. Gelia Frederick-van Genderen.

The permit includes specific targets for the combined operation of the Turtle Farm, Boatswain’s Beach and Dolphin Discovery Cayman Ltd to reduce the waste discharge into the marine environment by 50%. The Turtle Farm has already worked closely with Dr. Thomas Goreau, a world renowned specialist in protection of coral reefs, and with Henning Gatz of Aquacare Environment Inc. to identify specific treatment processes to aggressively address the waste issues at the facility.

While the Turtle Farm has made significant efforts to clean the effluent it discharges in the ocean over recent months, Dolphin Discovery recently told CNS that it has no filtering systems in place and that because of the large quantity of water going through the facility and with only four dolphins, the discharge would be negligible.

At this stage, Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the Turtle Farm and Boatswain’s Beach Joseph Ebanks has not said if the effluent from the dolphinarium will impact the work of Dr Goreau to regenerate the reefs around the areas which have been damaged over the last four decades by the farm. However he did say that the farm was a unique world class  facility. “Our marine environment is such an essential ingredient of our Caymanian tradition that we owe it to our past, current and future generations to protect that marine environment and we are fully committed to do so.”

Local Activist Billy Adam told CNS that it was a disgrace that the dolphinarium had been allowed to operate for this long without the official permit and said this was yet anothe example of the lawlessness of government. "Three minsiters and departments have allowed these facilities to break the law without any consequence," he said.  "This lawlessness is syetematic the Dolphinarium is still functionaing without an operating licence and no one is doing anything. This is yet another example of the disregard our government , the Governor and the FCO has for the rule of law."

Adams said he was disappointed as he had expected better of the PPM government.