The appeal made by a company accused of illegally operating industrial equipment on Devonshire Marsh has been dismissed in the Supreme Court of Appeals.

Rodrigues Trucking and Excavation Ltd. took its fight to the Court of Appeals earlier this week in an attempt to overrule a judgement denying an extension of the three month permit granted last year to use a large mechanical sand sifter and rock crusher at the site.

The company applied to the Environmental Authority in September to get the permits renewed, but was turned down.

Legal arguments centred around the wording of the Clean Air Act, which requires all fixed and movable ? but not portable ? industrial machinery to be licensed by the Minister of the Environment.

Rodrigues? lawyer, Kim White, argued that the machinery owned by his client, though large, was portable in that it could easily be moved to wherever it was required.

Portable machinery does not require licensing under current legislation and Mr. White argued that the company owner, Paul Rodrigues, was therefore entitled to carry on using the equipment without Government interference.

Appeals Court Judge Gerald Nazareth said the digital photograph of the equipment showed two metallic machines, one the size of a small bulldozer and the other a large bulldozer.

?It is clear from the definition of the word portable, that this equipment is not portable,? he said.

Appeals Court Judges Edward Zacca and Sir Murray Stuart-Smith agreed.

Mr. Justice Zacca added that the word portable means ?easily carried? and that this was obviously not the case. Detailed copies of the judgement will be released at a later date

The Minister of the Environment was represented by Saul Froomkin QC.