Gareth Manning, Staff Reporter

THERE COULD be more trouble brewing for another Sandals resort.

Officials at the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) have said investigations are under way over allegations of a discharge from the Sandals Dunn's River hotel in Mammee Bay, St Ann, into the marine environment.

The Gleaner was informed recently that in late April, what was believed to be sewage was observed on a beach close to another major all-inclusive hotel. A NEPA officer was called in and subsequently confirmed that the beach had, in fact, been contaminated.

Sandals' director of commu-nications Rachel McLarty told The Gleaner that while the resort chain has been aware of ongoing issues about water quality in Mammee Bay for years, she did not know of an investigation involving Sandals.

She said a recent independent review of its sewage system has, so far, not shown any malfunction.

Issue with squatters

"What we have, so far, is that there may be an issue with the the (squatter) settlement, which is across from the property and there might also be a problem with the Government sewage plant at Steer Town, which is to the east of Sandals Dunn's River," she said.

Sandals is already in an imbroglio with NEPA after the agency discovered that Sandals Royal Caribbean in Montego Bay had gone ahead with plans to construct a block of 18 rooms without acquiring an environmental permit.

Sandals claimed it did nothing wrong because it was given permission by the St James Parish Council to commence construction in December last year. It said it was never told by NEPA that it needed an environmental permit until five months after it started construction.

However, Mayor of Montego Bay Charles Sinclair said the parish council had only granted an outline planning approval to the hotel. Such an application, he explained, is given only when a basic outline of the project is submitted by the developer. Outline applications do not attract the full planning application fee, and approval for those applications is usually granted on condition that a detailed application is made subsequently.

"All the drawings are in the (parish) council I know, and they are awaiting some NEPA considerations," Sinclair told The Gleaner.

gareth.manning@gleanerjm.com