The idea of a sewage plant in Simpson Bay Lagoon was presented in 2012 during a town hall meeting on development plans for the Cole Bay/Cay Bay/Pelican area. Residents were quite vocal in their opposition to the proposal mainly for environmental reasons,
prompting then-Minister of Infrastructure William Marlin to reassure everyone later that year that no decision had been taken and the illustration of the plant used was just an artist’s impression in a suggested spot.
Fast forward to February 2014, when then-Minister of Infrastructure Maurice Lake said, “Before I became minister, William Marlin had all kinds of plans that included a city in the lagoon, sewage plants, a boardwalk, tunnels through the hills, etc. This is not my approach.”
The Marcel Gumbs Cabinet, which took office in the second half of 2015, instead wanted to swap land with Tesi NV of the Port de Plaisance Group to obtain an empty plot near the causeway where the plant could be built, in exchange for Government’s parcel of some 4,300 square metres at Kim Sha next to property already in the hands of the hotel’s proprietors.
However, the current NA-led government reversed this decision, saying it was incorrect because the terrain at Kim Sha in question had been zoned for a parking lot. This resulted in a lien by Tesi NV and a pending court case.
From a recent meeting between Dutch- and French-side officials on the issue (see Wednesday paper) the public learned that the “submerged” sewage plant is now planned on a 6,000-square-metre “island” to be reclaimed from Simpson Bay Lagoon after all.
It should be interesting to see the reactions to this latest news, because many believe the inlet contributing so much to the growth of the local marine industry and related activities has been burdened and negatively impacted by development enough as it is.
Moreover, it regards a prime tourism area with many businesses targeting mostly visitors, a status which the proximity of a sewage plant may affect. Not only that, but any stench produced by such a plant at the Southwest corner of the Lagoon could spread to some of the resorts, restaurants, etc. situated there due to the prevailing Easterly trade winds.
It’s fair to ask how badly parking spaces at Kim Sha are needed, but also to what extent granting the land to Tesi NV as intended by the former UP-led coalition would lead to more beachfront buildings there considered very undesirable by some too. It’s not for nothing that the lead singer of Orange Grove during Saturday’s St. Maarten Heineken Regatta concert said it might be the last time in that location, because he understood “a big hotel is supposed to come here.”
This has to be balanced against the importance of saving what is left of Simpson Bay Lagoon, rather than in effect making it even smaller. On the other hand, so much sewage runoff ends up in the water at the moment that a treatment plant undoubtedly would help reduce pollution.
The way things stand it seems like a proverbial choice between the devil and the deep blue sea.
