Who's to blame for what went wrong with the explosion at a Santa Elena quarry last week? Well, documents on the Department of the Environment website, show that the Ministry of Works played a central role.
The mining explosion is part of the roadworks for the paving of miles 48 to 80, a project spearheaded by the Ministry of Works.
The Ministry had to file an environmental compliance plan - and a review of that document shows that the Ministry was in open violation of many of the requirements.
Under the heading "earth movement activities," it says that they must obtain proper licenses and permits from the Mining Unit to operate quarries. As we now know, so permit was obtained for last Tuesday's explosion.
Second, there is a provision which makes it clear that quarry sites must not be in the vicinity of human settlements. This one was in a town.
Many other clear conditions of the plan were ignored, including basic safety regulations. But, the Ministry of works still approved the site violating its own Compliance plan.
And this puts the Minster of Works Rene Montero in an interesting position, since, ultimately, the failure to observe safety protocols rests with him. But he is also the area representative, and now the point-man to deliver relief supplies to is constituents who were affected.
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