resident fuming over smoke emissions from a stack at the stone quarry.

Thick smoke with a pungent tar-like smell has been billowing from the stack two to three times a week and polluting the environment, Mr. Michael Owner claimed.

He complained the smoke was smelly, unhealthy and could be sending soot particles onto roofs in the area.

Having captured it on film, he said the smoke appeared to be coming from the asphalt-making plant at the Bailey's Bay quarry.

Run by the Works and Engineering Ministry, the plant has been in operation for over 40 years.

However, Mr. Owner said the thick smoke had only become noticeable in the last several months.

He did not know how often it poured out of the stack, but claimed to have seen it himself at about 8 a.m. on nearly a dozen days this month.

"It's unhealthy, particularly in view of the proposed Clean Air Act,'' Mr.

Owner said. "It seems to me Government should first clean up its own act.'' He was referring to tough new air-pollution regulations expected to go before Parliament this summer.

In announcing the regulations, former Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto said Belco would have "a lot of work to do'' to get its Pembroke power plant to comply.

Permanent Secretary for the Environment Ministry, Mr. James Burnett-Herkes, who happens to be one of Mr. Owner's neighbours, said he had not noticed the smoke himself because he usually left for work before 8 a.m.

"It's the first I've heard about,'' he said.

However, Mr. Burnett-Herkes said he was concerned about the emissions from an environmental point of view and promised to check into it.

He noted a pollution-abatement system was in place at the asphalt plant to stop pollutants being emitted from the stack.

SMOKE OUT -- Thick smoke billows out of a stack at the Government stone quarry and asphalt plant.