Dr. Cassander Titley-O’Neal: Environmental Systems
Dr. O’Neal initially considered becoming a lawyer but later developed
a love of the sea and eventually earned a doctoral degree in marine biology. Her consulting firm Environmental Systems assists developers in researching and mitigating the potential impacts of their developments.
What can you tell me about the operation?
We provide environmental impact assessments and limited EIAs, environmental scoping studies, appraisals and assessments — right now for locally based companies. I’m trying to expand outside of the BVI into the wider Caribbean region.
You mentioned several kinds of studies, but essentially your business relies on public or private developers contracting you to perform legally mandated research, correct?
In the development process, the procedure is the developer submits an application along with the agent, and then you would have to submit an environmental screening form, which is reviewed by Town and Country Planning and the Planning Authority. Then they will write back to you and tell you what the terms of reference are. And they will tell you what kind of study has to be completed.
EIAs are mandated only for certain types of development?
There are full EIAs and there are limited EIAs. A full EIA will be for things like where you’re going to have a coastal development, like what the BVI Ports Authority is doing [with the cruise pier expansion]. If you’re doing a more small-scale project, you might not require dredging where it has the potential for heavy metal pollution and that sort of stuff.
When did you start the consulting business?
I was qualified to do it, but I didn’t see it as a business. My dad has a friend in Anegada named Wendell Creque and he needed to add a dock to his area so that boats could come in. He wanted me to do the study for him. So my dad [Amos O’Neal, a diver who is now deceased] was out helping me collect the data and he asked me, “Well, how do you know what the potential impacts are?” So I explained the process to him. He went to the Trade Department and he got the paperwork and said, “All I want you to do is sign it.” So the company actually stayed non-operational for four or five years while I was getting my PhD. I would do little things for people but I didn’t really see it as a business. I came back and really started pushing the company when I came back in 2011.
When you’re out doing fieldwork what is your typical day like?
It depends on the type of the project. If the project has a land side, we do things like walkthroughs, where we determine what kind of habitat it is. Is it a littoral woodland? Is it a deciduous forest? Is it a thorn scrub area? You figure out what are the primary species. Is it dominant? Is it abundant? Is it scarce? So then you have to categorise it. For the marine side, I usually don’t go into the water by myself. I usually hire a few people to go out with me. We would go on transacts close to the shore depending on the nature of the project and then do things like sea grass analysis, coral reef assessment, fish counts and all that type of stuff.
Some people criticise the EIA process as being inherently biased in favour of the developer. When you’re working on an EIA how do you see your role?
I’ll be honest with you, sometimes a developer will want you to say certain things and I cannot. I cannot because of my ethics, the ethics of my profession, and because I am a teacher, and I cannot be teaching one thing and I am doing the opposite. Lastly, I have to live here with my people.
This interview was conducted, condensed and edited by Jason Smith. Do you know of a businessperson who might make for an interesting profile? Please send an e-mail to jsmith@bvibeacon.com.
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