Now named SOS Jersey, the organisation continues to work to mitigate and prevent damage to the Island’s environment. It is an independent non-governmental agency and receives no grants or subsidies directly or indirectly from the government or the finance industry.
Our campaigning was instrumental in saving Havre des Pas from being fundamentally changed by wealthy entrepreneurs into a commercial marina and housing complex, and played a major role in bringing the South East coast Ramsar area into being.
In 2010, SOSJ investigated a serious, but (despite two official written warnings) unprosecuted sea-pollution incident relating to the excavation of the incinerator foundations.
Our reports backed up with photographic evidence, as well as a supportive testimony from the site manager, were presented to the then Environmental Scrutiny Panel and their advisers, and the dossier we meticulously amassed was finally brought to the attention of the Attorney General. This exercise highlighted the need for a totally independent environmental regulator, and has led to changes in the way suspected pollution incidents must be reported to the relevant authorities.
In 2014, SOSJ highlighted the storage of asbestos-filled containers in the exposed ‘headland’ at La Collette. After reading that there were about 40, our members checked the compound and counted 217 containers, many leaking and rusty, and offered to identify safer disposal methods.
SOSJ has raised serious concerns about the building of the International Finance Centre development on the Esplanade car park by the States of Jersey Development Company, arguing that it is being carried out without a proper formal and holistic review of the Island plan for the Waterfront.
In 2016, SOSJ was assured by the chief officer of the Transport and Technical Services Department that sea lettuce, which was carpeting St Aubin’s Bay, was caused by nitrates predominantly coming across from France and that local sources of nitrates were negligible.
However, our own survey of outflows into the bay quickly made clear that significant doses of Bellozanne treated sewage, high in nitrates and other chemicals such as ammonia, were a major cause of the lettuce.
In the wake of our campaigning, TTS had to reveal that it had been pumping up to five times the legally allowed levels of nitrates into the bay for many years.
SOSJ’s request to use a saline ‘pond’ at La Collette to provide a safe environment for millions of donated native-oyster seed while they matured, with a view to introducing them below the low-water line in St Aubin’s Bay the following year to naturally reduce the nitrogen was turned down by the Department.
Why is SOSJ involving itself in Waterfront issues? The answer is that the Waterfront was, not that long ago the town beach and indeed, despite being developed is still subject to Jersey’s incredible tidal range.
For nearly 30 years SOSJ monitored what was being tipped onto the beach to create the reclamation site and made representations to the various authorities saying that it was not happy with the way toxic ash was being dumped, along with other substances such as asbestos-laden building material.
All of this was done with the full knowledge and encouragement of the then Public Services Department. As time went on it became obvious that any development that followed would be blighted by what was below the surface.
The ash became a worrying for people buying flats on the Albert Pier when mortgage providers raised concerns about contaminated fill. In 2013, we warned SOJDC about the extent of toxic-ash pollution in the land beneath the Esplanade car park. In our communications with them, the States quango sought to play down the extent and the risk, but soon realised that there was a significant problem, which is costing huge sums to address, when they started site exploratory work and digging.
SOSJ has monitored the excavation using a camera situated in offices overlooking the site and raised serious concerns that passersby were not protected from the dust from deep excavations that blew over the low fence from the site.
The then Planning panel, despite SOSJ’s representation, allowed the destruction of a large part of the Georgian heritage sea wall, which would allow a few extra hundred square feet of office space.
Can one put the value of a few extra square feet of office space against a fine old Georgian structure? How much more pleasant would the development have been if it had incorporated the fine treelined curved promenade of the Georgian sea wall into the design?
Would the current Planning and Environment Minister allow that fine wall to be cruelly truncated? I don’t believe he would.
The Island now has a new Council of Ministers and hopefully things will change for the better. The worry is that the balance of power has now shifted from the ministers to the States chief executive and his senior officers, many of whom have only recently arrived and cannot have the love and ‘feel’ of our Island as do many Islanders.
The Island is very small and space finite, which makes it highly sensitive to population growth, the main agent of direct and indirect environmental change. Population over the past decades has increased exponentially bringing about massive changes.
In a world where material growth reigned supreme, the Island, perhaps unwittingly, went along with it, leveraging what it saw as its main resource – constitutional independence in taxation matters – and ignoring another – its unique land and seascape.
This choice was made several years ago leaving a few dedicated environmentally orientedgroups such as SOSJ and individuals in its wake constantly endeavouring to mitigate the damage inflicted by population growth.
To really preserve Jersey’s environment there needs to be a change in the direction of the government, one that raises the importance of environmental issues stemming from population and resultant need for increase housing infrastructure and other developments.
Our new Planning and Environmental Minister, John Young, can play a large part in this and we wish him success.
