Keith and Tochel,
Thank you for sounding the alarm. Reading the Greenpeace document I did not find fossil fuel fired power plants on the list of culprits for Dioxin emissions.
What makes me nervous is that this sludge comes from a hydro-electric power plant in Guayama,
PR, according to "El Caribe". In the same breath they mention that the plant (also?) works with coal. Fly ash would be collected in the precipitators and filters, sludge would come from wastewater treatment. Electric transformers use PCBs, similar to Dioxin. Is this a clandestine way to dispose of the contents of old transformers, by mixing it in with the other stuff. According to the articles (thanks for posting the web pages) not 50 tons but 50,000 tons has been shipped to Samana since January, and it's heaped in a visible black mountain, surrounded by housing or dwellings of athousand families. The constant emanations of dust from the unloading of the trucks is what makes this stuff so toxic for the neighborhood.
The articles give the impression that a lot of important people are up in arms about this, including the environmental investigator of the University of Santo Domingo (oldest in the Americas) and Mr. Luis Carvajal of the Dominican Academy of Sciences as well as the politicians from Samana.
Dr. Rene Ledesma, who signed the permit for the shipments is now being maligned, but he could very well not have not have known, that something more toxic than rock ash, for which the permit was given, was being shipped.
He is the person, who helped our North Coast Committee for Compliance with the Environmental Laws to keep three power plants from being built in Puerto Plata, by inviting us to environmental impact hearings and wrote to thank us for doing a civic service to our communities. I have him and his boss, Frank Moya Pons in the highest regard.
What can be done now is to stop any further shipments, until at least 50 samples from the Samana pile have been analized by at least three foreign laboratories. The sampling should be done under supervision of at least two notaries, who would also undertake the FEDEXing of the samples to the labs.
Maybe the Samana Forum members could organize this. For collection of funds a committee of uncorruptibles should be organized, also to supervise and mastermind the necessary steps such as public relations campaigns. This should be in Santo Domingo. Maybe Keith can pesuade Dolores to head this, as she could possibly find the right caliber of persons for this purpose.
Jay