quarry expansion be halted.

"I'm very concerned,'' said Mr. Robert Power, who is Bermuda's only certified cave diving instructor and has been exploring and mapping the Island's cave system for more than ten years.

Expansion of the Wilkinson Trust Quarry "poses a serious threat to Admiral's Cave,'' Mr. Power told The Royal Gazette yesterday. "It's a very large cave, and it's a particularly beautiful natural geological feature of the Island.'' Initially turned down by the Development Applications Board, approval to expand the quarry adjacent to North Shore Road was approved on appeal by then Environment Minister the Hon. Ann Cartwright DeCouto.

The application was never advertised, although Planning Director Mr. Erwin Adderley said at the time that it should be.

Government Conservation Officer Mr. David Wingate said in a 1991 internal memo that expansion of the quarry would be "environmentally disastrous''. He has since been told to refer all queries about the expansion to the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries.

In the memo, Mr. Wingate said his department was not informed of the application until after the expansion had been approved.

Owners of the nearby Bermuda Perfumery, which recently learned of the expansion and fear it will permanently damage their visitors attraction, are leading a group of objectors who want the planning approval revoked.

Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons is now reviewing the case. Mr.

Adderley, who now says he was mistaken when he said the 1987 application should have been advertised, said the land zoned industrial around the quarry was expanded during preparation of the 1983 Development Plan, after the owners appealed the existing boundaries.

Because the proper zoning was in place when the 1987 application was made, it was not the normal practice to advertise the application, Mr. Adderley said.

The National Trust was aware of the "compromise'' expansion agreed to for the property under the Development Plan during a meeting with a technical officer in 1985, but did not object before a Planning Tribunal, Mr. Adderley said.

Despite the proper zoning and the lack of objectors, the DAB turned down the expansion application in 1988, citing concerns about the cave among others.

The expansion would bring the quarry to within 60 feet of Admiral's Cave.

Mr. Power said the quarry's threat to the cave was twofold.

First was the effect of nearby blasting on the cave's stalactites and stalagmites, he said. "They are very fragile,'' he said. "They've taken hundreds of thousands of years to grow and could just be shattered by one blast.'' The second threat was the stone quarrying itself, Mr. Power said. "The quarry is actually going to eat into the cave itself.'' There were six or seven seawater pools in Admiral's Cave linked to Castle Harbour, and pollution was another concern, he said.

In the House last Friday, Mrs. Cartwright DeCouto said applicant Bermuda-Caribbean Engineering Consultants Ltd. hired a blasting expert to support its appeal. The expert said blasting could be done in such a way that it would not damage the caves.

But Mr. Timothy Marshall, lawyer for the Perfumery and other objectors, said evidence originating from the applicant should be viewed accordingly.

"Secondly, there were many experts available here in Bermuda in terms of the importance of the cave system and the unique habitat that caves provide to a whole number of species,'' but there was nothing in the Planning file to indicate they were consulted.

"I think Government is missing the point,'' Mr. Marshall said. "They are so busy trying to defend themselves in this one that they are not actually going out to the property and assuring that the cave system is basically protected.

"There is a lot at stake out there for everybody in Bermuda.''