Toxics in Samana?

[Keith R]

Originally Posted by Jay Pedro

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.

Jay,
I met Dr. Ledesma last summer to discuss, in fact, regulation of wastes in the DR (if DR1ers haven't guessed by now, I am a waste policy nut). I was favorably impressed by the man. I myself am not rushing to judgment. Based on our discussion, I do not think he is the type of man to knowingly sign onto a toxic import shipment destined to an ecologically sensitive area like Samana. I am hoping to hear that he did ask all the right questions prior to approval, and AES/Multigestiones seemed to have everything in order, so under the law he had little choice but to issue the permit. In other words, that he and the Environment Ministry were deceived.

That said, I still think he and the Ministry should have wondered aloud why AES was going through all this trouble to ship this stuff here, rather than dispose of it in PR.

I have not had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Moya Pons, although I still harbor hopes of doing so sometime in the near future to discuss his views of his legacy to Dominican environmental protection.

I am hoping that, at a minimum this entire episode will make the Environment Ministry leery of approving any waste import, and double and triple-checking with proper assays analyzed by reputable, state-of-the-art labs if they decide to. At a maximum is my preference that the DR adopt at least a de facto waste import ban until it can adopt a specific regulation and set of clear, tough procedures thereon (the current regulation only deals with the issue in a general way) -- or better yet, adopt the Basel Ban and forego waste imports altogether.

Best Regards,
Keith

[GlowWorm]

We have several "fossil fuel" power plants in the USA that generate tons of fly ash. Most is used as an additive to concrete and asphalt, some is mixed with sand for spreading on highways during snow season.

If it is mixed with other materials, in low quantities, there is very little long-term environmental threat, short-term problems are with high ammonia content. The chemical plant cliché, “dilution is the solution to pollution”, many times holds true. Unfortunately, if left unprotected from rainfall and the resulting run off, bulk quantities can be problematic.

I am not familiar with the Samana area, does it have “cemento” plants like Santa Domingo? If not, I cannot fathom why this material was dumped there.

As for the dioxin, I wonder if the PR is using their power plant boiler systems as a waste incinerator as was done in India. The systems for coal-fired plants use an atomized spray of diesel fuel to ignite the coal. In India, they were mixing quantities of PCB with the diesel in order to dispose of it. The problem is that PCB does not breakdown at the temperatures found in coal-fired boiler systems and there were no static precipitators on the stacks.

I hope this is just fly ash and that the bulk storage problem is resolved.

Glow

[tochel]

Originally Posted by Jay Pedro

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.

this is totally inacebtable!
1. i organiced a probe. we will analize it in switzerland. as i'am living near basel (novartis, ciba, hoffman la roche, schweizerhalle,...) i know the danger and how expencive it is to reclean a contaminated area!
2. harmless material will not be moved hundreds of miles...? the area has to be controlled, so that no one can remove something.
3. plastic planes are preventing that the rain "versickert" the material into the groundwater!!!
4. who garantizes that official probes are correct? who garantizes that in miami tested material ist that from samana??

I hope this is just fly ash and that the bulk storage problem is resolved.
Glow.


you can hope or wait, we will investigating anyway!!!

[Jay Pedro]

Hi Keith,
Rene Ledesma (and photo) are in Listin today:
http://www.listin.com.do/cuerpos/dinero/din4.htm
Says no heavy metals in "rokash".

Hi Glow,
Your remarks led me to the question: could this stuff be destined to end up in the new Samana Airport runway ? In that case there would be an acceptable explanation for the shipments: "demand pull" instead of "disposal push"

Gruezi Torchel,
Your item 1.: Great idea to test a sample in Basel! Please let us know what they find. What are you going to ask them to look for? You will probably have to give them indications. I had "polvillo" fly ash, collected on our terrace, tested at INDOTEC in Santo Domingo to prove it was from EGE-Haina and not from the nearby granular coal deposit, as the EGE-Haina people maintained. Without the pollution book from the World Bank I could not have told them what to test for. In the end INDOTEC proved it was EGE-Haina's stuff.

Your item 4.: This can only be guaranteed if you draw the samples with a notary present and send them out to the laboratory through the notary via FEDERAL EXPRESS.

Saludos Jay

[Andy B]

I went to the port yesterday as I promised and observed a large, sloping mound about 40 feet or more high on the western side of the port. It is piled and graded on the western, upward slope of the port property beside the bay. It is surrounded on two sides by the high port wall with the fourth side being the entrance road from the western port storage area by the old aduana building. It is contained and seperated from the nearby houses along the main highway by the high wall and for the general public to get to the site, they have to pass by the armed guard at the port's entrance gate.

It appears to be well-packed so no dust was apparent. It was piled and graded so that any normal rain runoff would flow down the entrance road area and enter the general ground storage area of the port and not flow into the bay. The bay's water was crystal-clear and showed no signs of runoff detris despite a week of just-ended, rainy weather. Torrential rains associated with a tropical storm could be another matter. The composition of the matter was of a gray-colored, coarse sand that would be easily compacted and not easily be blown around by the usual breeze.

There was not enough of the material to be used in a project so ambitious as an airport runway as was suggested in the previous post.

I was unable to speak to the several officials that were standing up at the top of the slope as when we were slowly driving up to them several carloads of military and other civilian officials drove up and gave us questioning looks as they passed us. We turned around and left.

[tochel]

the group who's investigating knows how to deal with stuff like this.
can't tell you more at the moment.
i'm back when results of probes are out!

yust an idea

hippolito mejia and rene ledesma are such as shure that this stuff is not toxic so my proposition:

hippo and ledesma will invite the press to arroyo barril.
there under control of the whole press, they mix a drink of 100 gramm ash into 1 liter whater.
the ash is not toxic, so prost drinking it!

[Keith R]

Andy, thanks for the eyewitness report!

Tochel, I hope your last idea was just meant as a joke. I don't know anyone -- probably including you -- who would willingly drink any concoction of any sort of ash mixed in drinkable liquid. Hmmm. But then, maybe that was your intended point (about what happens to local groundwater if there is seepage)?

Regards,
Keith

[Susanita]

I have e-mailed all the Spanish speaking Greenpeace offices I could find. I've also notified the US Greenpeace office. I am in total shock over this. A friend taht works for the power plant in Puerto Plata has informed me that those byproducts are HIGHLY toxic and made up of carbons and chemicals.

I am extremely shocked by this.

While listening to the Santiago morning show (Monumental) over the internet the hosts explained that this was something believed to be 'helped along' (better translated as -- someone padded a wallet nicely to help get this approved) by tourism investors from the East side of the island to hinder the progress of the Samana area. Samana having the infamous whale migration was brought up for discussion and the guest speaker informed, that if ONE whale were to die, THEN this would cause world headlines.

[2samana2]

For the one who could read Spanish, this site www.samana.com give a detailed account of the events, for the non reading Spanish, pictures posted on that page will give you a better understanding of the situation.

I inted to belive more what is beeing posted on that site then someone eye-witness description by driving buy.

In journalism they say: "Whatever is describe accurately is not neccesary the truth".

Excuse my English.
2samana2

[Jay Pedro]

Listin Diario Today:
Secretary for the Environment and Natural Resources, Frank Moya Pons is being called to testify before the senate. Photo of Samana governor listening to explanations from Gestion Ambiental People.
http://www.listin.com.do/cuerpos/republica/rep2.htm