Bulkan Timber Works and the Superior Shingles & Wood Products of Yarrowkabra, Soesdyke/Linden Highway have approached the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) appealing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) grant of permission to BK International Inc. to engage in small scale sand mining in the Yarrowkabra area, because the appellants are of the opinion that no environmental impact assessment (EIA) had been done before permission had been granted.

The appellant entities have listed a number of concerns they thought should have been deliberated before permission was granted to BK International.
Their concerns include the damaging of sensitive computerized equipment at their factory; relocation of the Yarrowkabra Coals Miners Association’s operations; livelihood of residents, their crops and farms etc.; welfare of the small Amerindian community of Waiakabra; effects of vibration, dust and airborne diseases; along with the shifting of the earth, and the effects of erosion.
The EAB had summoned the parties involved to a special meeting after the public consultation was abruptly terminated through heated exchange of words between workers of the two companies and residents of Yarrowkabra, who constituted staffers of one of the companies involved in the dispute. At that special meeting, a number of questions are expected to be tabled for answer by the EPA before the EAB decides on the matter.
BK International Inc. had been given permission to operate the small scale sand mining operation in order to supply sand to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project, the Haags Bosch sanitary landfill site, the East Bank four-lane road project, and the Timehri road expansion project.