A pressure group claims Bermuda is in the midst of a public health emergency and accused the Government of dragging its feet on enacting regulations designed to improve the island’s air quality.

The Bermuda Clean Air Coalition added emissions, not least from Belco’s North Power Station in Pembroke, were potentially harmful to schoolchildren and residents.

The group, made up of area residents and business owners, has written an opinion piece in today’s edition pointing out that while the Clean Air Amendment Act was passed in December, the accompanying regulations have still not been brought into force.

The Government responded that it intends to introduce the regulations in the coming parliamentary year.

Ongoing pollution from the station was recently highlighted after residents complained of soot fallout and Jason Hayward, a government MP, called for a long-term solution to the emissions.

The BCAC said in a statement: “Bermuda’s Clean Air Act is a hollow shell without the promised regulations.

“Every month of delay means more toxic soot in children’s lungs and more polluted water in our homes. The Government must enact these regulations now, with independent monitoring and real penalties for polluters — no more excuses.”

“Government and regulators have had years to act and have failed. They promised these regulations were coming earlier in 2025 after passing the updated Act in December 2024, and we’re still waiting.

“Meanwhile, Belco continues to coat neighbourhoods and schools in oily fallout and nothing changes.”

A government spokesman confirmed that the regulations are set to be tabled in the House of Assembly this year.

He said: “The regulations will set enforceable limit values for pollutants in ambient air, making Bermuda’s standards more stringent than those in the UK and Europe by adopting their aspirational air quality target levels as enforceable limit values.

"An additional standard for very fine particulate matter has been drawn from US Environmental Protection Agency statutes to complete the list of regulated pollutants.

“Belco’s large-particulate soot emissions typically occur briefly after certain engine start-ups, and while testing of 65 nearby properties by Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences confirmed compliance with UK and World Health Organisation drinking water standards, Belco has rightly undertaken cleaning, filtration and roof maintenance in response.

“It should be noted that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources continues to contract BIOS to operate seven air quality monitoring stations around Bermuda, including three focused on Belco’s emissions.

“Independent water tank monitoring in the Belco area is required annually under Belco’s operating licence.

“These soot emissions that affect neighbouring properties will be addressed by the amended Act and the forthcoming regulations.

“They will allow the Government to consider these events a statutory nuisance, making it easier to pursue enforcement than under the previous law.”

Complaints of soot and emissions began after the North Power Station was built with engines configured for liquefied natural gas, a fuel that never ended up being approved for use in Bermuda.

As such, Belco instead ran the engines using heavy fuel oil which Wayne Caines, the president of Belco, said caused the problems.

The BCAC claimed in its op-ed that government entities and regulators are “politically captured” and placing corporate polluters above public health.

It added: “The DENR, the Regulatory Authority and the Environmental Authority have become politically captured — serving the interests of political masters and corporate allies rather than protecting the public they are meant to serve.

“This is not environmental protection, it’s political protection for corporate polluters and a direct attack on the public’s health, wallets and future.”

The government spokesman responded: “Suggestions that DENR or the Environmental Authority are 'politically captured' are unfounded.

"DENR has not hesitated to act where breaches of local or international standards are shown, and the department continues to provide sound technical advice to better inform policy development in this area.”

The BCAC said that Belco’s actions in remediation and mitigation “remain superficial”.

It added: “Their white and greenwashing tactics — painting roofs, washing cars, telling residents they’re ‘compliant’ — are rinse-and-repeat PR stunts.

“These half-measures do nothing to curb the soot, heavy fuel oil emissions and particulate fallout that residents face daily.”

Asked for a response to the BCAC’s comments, Belco issued the same statement it issued this month in response to complaints about continuing soot fallout.

Nadir Wade, Belco’s managing director, said in that statement that the company recognised its operations “may impact the lives of residents living next to land that is zoned for industrial operations”.

He said that in July, Belco was notified that 15 homes experienced impacts related to emissions, adding: “We responded swiftly to mitigate those impacted customers including painting roofs, washing cars and power-washing properties.

“Bermuda’s long-term energy strategy contemplates electricity production from alternative fuel sources as a transition away from Bermuda’s reliance on heavy fuel oil to produce electricity on island.

“Any transition to an alternative fuel source would aim to reduce emissions and soot fallout.”

The Regulatory Authority has been approached for comment.