The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition is outraged by The Royal Gazette reporton Monday revealing that a potential breach of Belco’s North Power Station approval was simply “not pursued” by authorities. Children breathe toxic fumes and microscopic fuel particles in classrooms, families scrub oily sludge from their water tanks, and thousands live in fallout zones with schools, daycare centres and care homes — yet regulators looked away.

This is not protection — it is abandonment.

Only last Friday, the Department of Communications declared there was “no evidence of political capture”. Monday’s revelations make a mockery of that claim. The department has become little more than the Government’s chief propaganda arm — spin doctors pumping out daily narratives to defend bad policy, failed execution and poor governance. In BCAC’s case, it habitually plays down clear findings while shielding regulators who refuse to regulate and operators who continue to pollute.

Nothing the department says can — or should — be taken seriously.

The spin goes back much farther. Last year, for example, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, via the Department of Communications, told Bermudians that three weeks of public consultation on sweeping clean-air legislation was “adequate”. That package will shape Bermuda’s environmental standards for decades. Yet the public and international experts were given less time to respond than it takes the post office to deliver the mail across Hamilton. The BCAC still produced an extensive, 89-page technical response in that window; the Government never engaged with it, then rammed through incomplete legislation for optics last December, leaving residents unprotected.

The BCAC commends The Royal Gazette and chief reporter Sarah Lagan for pursuing the inconvenient truth over many years in the face of a smokescreen of obscurity, denial and arrogance — all in the pursuit of profits over public health. Bermuda needs a free, independent press to hold public bodies, regulators and monopoly operators such as Belco to account when they refuse to hold themselves accountable.

Meanwhile, Belco continues to pump out pollution day and night while regulators and government facilitators look the other way. This is not environmental protection; it is political protection for a monopoly utility at the direct expense of Bermuda’s health, wallets and future.

The World Health Organisation and United Nations warn that air pollution of this kind kills millions annually worldwide — and Bermuda is no exception. Our island already suffers disproportionately high rates of cancer, asthma, heart disease and other pollution-related illnesses.

The DENR is the worst regulatory offender. It has apparently abandoned its statutory duty, ignored clear breaches of Belco’s operations, and placed schoolchildren’s lungs and families’ water tanks beneath Belco’s profits.

The Regulatory Authority and Environmental Authority have been equally complicit — each failing in its own way to uphold its mandate. Instead of serving the people, all three now serve the company.

The BCAC says enough is enough. Many harmed residents have claims for compensation for damage to health, homes and water supplies. But compensation alone is not a solution. Regulators must be stripped down and rebuilt from scratch — independent, transparent and accountable to the people, not political masters or corporate polluters.

The Government must immediately:

• Legislate and enforce modern clean-air regulations without delay

• Investigate the breach regulators ignored and hold Belco accountable under the law

• Install independent, regulatory-grade air and water monitoring beyond Belco’s control

• End grace periods and require immediate compliance

Senior Belco executives, who collect huge salaries funded by the public, must also be held personally accountable. If they knowingly allow pollution, they should face direct financial and criminal penalties. Only when polluting hurts executives’ bank accounts and careers will they have the right incentives to stop it.

• The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition is an activist group whose mission is to bring awareness of the grave implications caused by Belco’s stacks and machinery to the public