GOVERNMENT MAY eventually have to cough up $64 million dollars for the clean-up of the former Mobil Oil Refinery site at Needham’s Point.
But the legal team representing the Canadian company originally hired to clean up the site believe Government’s continued delay in signing a contract to have the work done may have made the area even more environmentally unstable.
The site just off Bay Street, which also includes two of the country’s main hotels (Hilton Barbados and the new Radisson) and one of Barbados’ most popular beaches (Pebbles) has been contaminated with crude oil for more than a decade, and there is lingering concern that ground water could be contaminated – or even worse, a fire could break out along the 12-hectare peninsula.
Lawyers representing Canadian company Fiton Technologies were in a celebratory mood last week when High Court judge Justice Olson Alleyne ruled against the Government’s application to have an arbitrator removed from the case.
