Environmental breach case against UC Rusal to continue in October
Published:Friday | September 12, 2025 | 4:54 PM
The hearing of the case against bauxite company UC Rusal for alleged environmental breaches is set to continue in the St Catherine Parish Court on October 2.
At Thursday's hearing, the Crown's first Witness, Jahneil Williams of the National Environment and Planning Agency's Pollution, Monitoring and Assessment Branch, testified that on July 28, 2022, following reports of the alleged environmental breaches, she was instructed to visit several locations.
She told the court that she visited the Flat Bridge, the Bog Walk Bridge, Byndloss, Vanity Fair and the UC Rusal plant and collected water samples, which were above the recommended PH levels.
The witness said she had also visited the plant a year earlier.
However, the defence made an objected to the prosecution asking questions about the 2021 visit, which it said could be prejudicial as it is of no consequence, as no documents were furnished on these findings and the substantive matter being tried was the 2022 incident.
Parish Court Judge Geneta Smikle ruled that the prosecution would be allowed to question the witness.
The trial relating to the 2021 matter was scheduled to start on July 7, but the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions applied for a joinder of both matters, which was denied by a judge.
As such, the 2022 trial was pushed forward and the 2021 matter is set to start in November.
UC Rusal is being tried under Section 11 of the Wild Life Protection Act and Section 12(1A) of the Natural Resources Conservation Act.
The Crown led evidence that trade effluent from a UC Rusal pond had escaped into the waterway of the Rio Cobre, which resulted in the death of fish and other wildlife.
An investigation by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) resulted in the company being prosecuted for the breaches.
The Crown is set to call the NEPA's Senior Manager Richard Nelson and Kirk Patrick Henry when the trial reconvenes in October.
- Rasbert Turner
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