LONDON - A Canadian-owned company was accused of using shoddy geological work in its plans for a dam in Belize on Wednesday by opponents of the project fighting its environmental approval in the British Privy Council.

A five-man judicial committee of the Privy Council heard that a series of studies have shown the Chalillo dam backed by Fortis Inc. of Newfoundland would sit on shale and sandstone, not granite, as a Belizean environmental assessment was told. The Belize Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, or BACONGO, wants the Privy Council to order a new environmental assessment of the $30-million US dam.