By Tim Cowan Ph.D.
Drilling for water on Nevis will start this month, according to Carlisle Powell, junior minister responsible for Public Utilities and the Environment. This is despite conflicting reports and controversy over the feasibility of the venture; questions about the credibility of the group contracted to do the work; suggestions of shady deals and political favoritism; and hints of jealousy.
As previously noted in The Observer (July 29, 2007), Dr. Dale Morgan, Professor of Geophysics and Associate Director ofthe Earth Resources Laboratory (ERL) at the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT), claims the drilling plans are based on bad science and will cause permanent damage to Nevis’s ecosystem.
Drilling is slated to start this month beginning in the Hamilton area, followed by a site in Cane Garden, and then finally in Beaumont,says Dr. Ronald Skiphoag of Bedrock Exploration Development Technologies(BEAD), the firm chosen by the Nevis Island Administration (NIA) to develop aground water production program for the Nevis Water Department.
The NIA believes the multimillion dollar drilling project will increase the island’s water supply. But Dr. Morgan claims the NIA and BEAD have embarked on a reckless plan designed to maximize BEAD’s profits. Powell has said the completion date, according to Dr.Skiphoag and BEAD, is February, 2008.
Dr. Morgan submitted his damning report to the Ministry of Works and Communication on Feb. 21, 2005. But until recently the government, through Ernie Stapleton, permanent secretary in that ministry,denied the report even existed.
Yet, The Observer acquired a copy of Dr.Morgan’s report several months ago. Dr. Morgan’s research interests include applied seismology, and environmental geophysics, and the ERL’s research interests focus partly on “groundwater in the near surface,” according to MIT’s website(http://eapsweb.mit.edu/research/centers/erl.html).
Dr. Morgan has urged the NIA to suspend the BEAD project pending a review of the company’s contract and the methods it plans to use. He also called on the NIA to appoint an external advisor to monitor BEAD, arguing, “It is imperative for the government to do this. If not they will not be acting in good faith for the citizens of Nevis.”
Dr. Morgan isn’t the only one raising questions about BEAD. Robert A.Bisson, President of Earth Water Global (EWG),and Earth Water Technology International (EWTI) settled a court case with BEAD recently. Bisson’s companies recently did water exploration in Trinidad and Tobago. He took legal action against BEAD for misrepresenting itself as an underwater exploration and drilling company; in effect, fraudulently riding on EWG’s and EWTI’s coattails, leading others to believe that signing with BEAD was the same as signing with Earth Water, and pretending that BEAD had capabilities it didn’t really have.
But Bisson, who says he has no current relationship with BEAD or anyone else currently doing water exploration on Nevis, leaves no doubt about who’s the brains and talent behind Earth Water. “The overall concepts, the theory of mega watersheds, the practice of exploring and developing is something that I discovered and evolved and tested over the years by raising capital, and getting teams and directing them…over a period of three decades.”
In an interview with The Observer, Bisson was asked if BEAD signed a fraudulent contract in Grenada, to which Bisson agreed. “What happens when you go to court with people who are villains and basically have no assets…they’re just ghosts, they’re not real!…This is pure chicanery on the part of these shadows of mine…the only thing you can do is throw light on them…it cost me half a million dollars to fight my shadow.”
Bisson says in his former association with BEAD and Bedrock, the group was responsible for fundraising and nothing else. He says BEAD was formed specifically to finance Earth Water’s projects. “They were going to be our financial partners. They came to us with that offer.”
In the interview Bisson was asked if BEAD has the expertise to perform underwater exploration and drilling, “No, we were the expertise. These guys were raising capital. They had no experience. Their companies were founded only after we formed the relationship and they were supposed to raise the capital. And Earth Water was going to do the exploration and development the same as we always have. And then we discovered that they had gone out unbeknownst to us, started a phantom company, a new company called BEAD…At the same time they were working with us in Grenada they founded this other company and secretly hired one of my subcontractor scientists and went about saying…to people that they had done the project…they actually signed the contract.”
Adding insult to injury, Bisson says some people signed up with BEAD, believing they were actually signing with Earth Water. “They signed up explicitly because of Earth Water’s track record in Tobago.” At that time Earth Water was vying for a water exploration and drilling contract in Grenada, not long after the recent hurricane.
Amid the disarray and battered buildings, streets, and water supplies, the Grenada government was planning ahead for special events of 2007; needing an exploration firm that could develop four million gallons of water daily within nine months, partly to help service the impending water supply needed by hotels. Bisson says the Grenada government, politicians, and others believed his firm, Earth Water, could do the job.
“We didn’t learn until actually a couple of months after Bedrock had secretly signed the agreement independently of us, that we were excluded from it.” It turns out BEAD got the job because it “came in at a less expensive rate” (lower tender) even though Bisson says BEAD and Bedrock weren’t able to produce, or perform under the contract in Grenada. “When we found out that we’d been eliminated suddenly in favor of this brand new company…I called and objected…but was told their firm’s price was lower and we’re going with them, and that was that,” says Bisson.
Bisson adds that the previous government of Nevis was ready to do business with his company, Earth Water, and “after six years…of due diligence” government representatives visited his worksites in Tobago. He says the former government was prepared to sign the contract with his firm, “and we would’ve had water within a few months‚ starting up. And now it’s been six or seven months since they signed a contract again with the same group (BEAD, Bedrock).
The former government in Nevis was prepared to enter into the contract and when the new government came in people apparently approached them. And the new government did not do the due diligence that the former government had done, and all of that learning curve was lost,” says Bisson.
In addition, Bisson adds that he read in a newspaper or on a computer weblog recently that the new government went to see BEAD’s wells and drilling apparatus and sites in Tobago, but he says “BEAD doesn’t have any wells,they’ve never done any contract like this in their existence, in their very short existence.”
In the interview Bisson was asked point blank if all of the water exploration and drilling sites in Tobago visited by representatives of the new government belong to his company, Earth Water. “That is correct,” Bisson replied confidently.
As for BEAD’s success rate in Grenada after being awarded the exploration contract there, Bisson pulls no punches. “They haven’t produced a thing. To the best of my knowledge they haven’t performed at all in two years. September 16th is when they signed the contract which was supposed to deliver four million gallons a day within nine months. It’s now 24 months there’s plenty of documentation out and this can be all derived independently from me”.
Bisson says he doesn’t want to be portrayed and perceived as “accusing people,” and notes there’s a “huge body of evidence” about this matter publicly available on the internet, in books, and from other sources. “In Nevis they came in as BEAD and basically claimed again that they had done these projects. As I understand it, again I wasn’t even aware they (Nevis government) were dealing with these guys, especially because it had been two years in Grenada. Some of the critical people in Nevis making these decisions were well aware that the same group (BEAD) was unable to produce, perform under a contract in Grenada but they came in at a less expensive rate
When the NIA decided to proceed with drilling plans for Nevis, it relied onBEAD’s depiction of a similar water extraction project it (BEAD) has installed in Tobago. But this seems now questionable at the very least in light of Bisson’s claims about BEAD’s lack of capabilities in this area, and that BEAD has no wells or exploration sites and equipment of its own.
Furthermore, the NIA had already seen the report by MIT’s Dr. Morgan and knew he believed the Tobago project was an environmental time bomb. “Bedrock Technologies have left Tobago in a very grim situation. They are effectively mining water and not treating it as a sustainable resource,” argues Dr. Morgan. Water mining refers to the process of extracting water faster than it can be replenished.
Junior Minister Powell exudes confidence and support for BEAD’s water drilling in Tobago, saying “these people have proven in Tobago that they have been able to find water, In Tobago I was able to visit one of their wells which is producing at 800 gallons a minute. And even if we were to find something in Nevis that could produce at half of that amount, we would be terribly excited.”
Powell says BEAD’s water drilling in Tobago is evidence of its proven record of successful water exploration, adding he also knows there are many pessimists who doubt the authenticity of successful water explorations. As previously reported in The Observer (September 28, 2007), BEAD has successfully completed exploration for groundwater in Trinidad and Tobago and Montserrat.
BEAD proposed extracting up to 10 million gallons of water daily (10 MGPD) from wells drilled into the Island’s aquifers. An aquifer is an underground layer of rock, sand, clay, or gravel from which water can be extracted. A well is drilled and the water is drawn out by pumps. The aquifieris refilled as rainfall drains through the soil into the underground layer.
As previously noted in The Observer (July29, 2007), aquifers are very delicate systems, developed over millions of years. But they can be destroyed in mere months if exploited too aggressively, leaving future generations to face acute water shortages. Most Island aquifers have a layer of fresh water above a layer of sea water, and if enough fresh water is present the aquifer maintains sufficient pressure to keep the fresh water separate from the sea water. But disaster will occur if the fresh water is removed too quickly because the pressure will drop too fast.
The issue of bad science, to which Dr. Morgan refers, centres on the quality of BEAD’s assessment of Nevis and the Island’s capacity to supply water from its fragile system of aquifers. In this context, there is a stark contrast between the assessments by BEAD and Dr. Morgan. Dr. Morgan’s assessment gives Nevis a rating of between one and two (1 and 2), meaning the Island has a “low or medium low” potential; while BEAD gave Nevis a rating of four (4), meaning a medium high potential for aquifer production. The contradiction between the two ratings is critical, because experts say an exploitation rate acceptable for an Island with a four (4)rating, such asBEAD’s, would produce an ecological disaster that could take centuries to repair for an island with a rating of only two (2).
Dr. Morgan claims BEAD’s plan will lead to the devastation of the Nevis aquifers, and the cost–financial and otherwise-will be borne by future generations. In his report to the government in early 2005 he claims production of 10 million gallons of water daily, which BEAD proposes, will be possible only if “virtually all the recharge groundwater is removed annually. Any attempt to remove water in these quantities from the subsurface of Nevis will undoubtedly destroy the aquifers.”
In Dr. Morgan’s report, he notes the only way to avoid the destruction of Nevis’s aquifers is if production is more conservative than BEAD’saggressive proposal. “(BEAD) methods will probably lead to water mining,” he wrote. Dr. Morgan and BEAD agree that Nevis and St. Kitts must increase their water supplies, especially in light of plans to build more resort hotels here. At issue is how to meet the current demand and increases that will be necessary in the future.
“After about 20 years it (the water found by BEAD) will be depleted and it does not come back to normal for a few centuries,” said Dr. Morgan recently. “So for present politicians it’s ok, more water will be available but for future generations less will be available, so it’s the water resources of your children and grandchildren that are being wrecked; environmentally it is terrible because the supply is not sustainable.”
Several people familiar with the situation say present politicians are accountable to the public and should be answering some important questions about the drilling project, such as: (1) Why did the NIA deny the existence of Dr. Morgan’s critical report which he submitted to the government nearly three years ago? (2) Why did the NIA proceed with BEAD’s drilling plan, despite knowing it would damage the future of Nevis?; and (3)Why didn’t the NIA explore other less damaging environmental options available, especially since Dr. Morgan says Nevis currently loses 50 percent of its supplied water through wastage? He recommended that Nevis find ways to avoid such water losses but the BEAD proposal doesn’t even mention water conservation measures.
In addition, some people might wonder if the NIA and Carlisle Powell, the utilities minister, knowingly misled residents of Nevis into believing the amount of water extracted would be up to one million gallons daily, and the cost would be less than the tariff currently charged to consumers. This is because BEAD’s proposal notes the company aims to “initially supply 2 MGPD immediately” at a cost of U.S.$3.00 per 1,000 U.S. gallons of water. Dr. Morgan’s report asserts that 2MGPD is more than Nevis needs right now, and that “the suggested price is twice your present cost.”
But Powell remains optimistic, saying “All of the technical work has been done and Dr. Skiphoag has assured us (NIA) that by November 2007, once the drilling goes well, they hope to have for us a half a million gallons per day to put into our system.” He adds the NIA will ensure that all of the water provided met the international standards for potable water, so the demand for the product would not become a major concern to consumers.
