SANTO DOMINGO.– Organizations for the defense and protection of the environment submitted a formal request to the new Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources, Miguel Ceara Hatton, to investigate the complete file of the power generation barges located on the Ozama River, owned by Seaboard Transcontinental and You will realize that they are illegal and what is appropriate is their immediate transfer due to the damage they cause to health and the environment.
“We are confident that the new minister Miguel Ceara Hatton is a man who comes from international organizations and knows that the main thing in a country is education and health. We are appealing to his kindness to review this entire process that has been carried out illegally in relation to the barges that are on the Ozama River. We are sure that the request that we have made to him will be executed, which is that he remove those barges from there, that he transfer them to any other place because they cannot continue there,” said Euren Cuevas, Executive Director of the Institute of Lawyers for Protection of the Environment (INSAPROMA).
He indicated that they make this request protected by Law 64-00 on the Environment and Natural Resources, which establishes that any industry that may negatively impact the health of the communities will not be given any type of permits, neither by the Ministry of the Environment nor by the mayors. “It is very clear that article 113 in paragraph 1 does not put permits in the hands of the Ministry of the Environment, that is, it has to deny them immediately,” he said.
He stated that Ceara Hatton must review the decision made in 2017 by the then Minister of the Environment, Francisco Domínguez Brito, to deny Seaboard Transcontinental license renewal and granted a deadline to remove the only barge it had then, the Sea Star II.
He reported that the new minister must also thoroughly investigate resolution 0022-2021 of the year 2021 that modified the renewed environmental license 0003-01 dated March 30, 2020, granted in favor of Seaboard, which authorizes the operation of the Estrella plant de Mar III, but replacing Estrella de Mar II. And yet, what the company did was put both plants into operation in parallel. In addition, that same resolution granted a non-renewable term of 2 years for Estrella de Mar III to be transferred.
“The decisions are illegal because in environmental matters the law does not allow provisional permits to be given. These permits must be covered by an environmental impact study and an Environmental Management and Adjustment Program. We are completely sure that when the minister reviews all this and finds out about the illegalities that exist there, he will make the decision to definitively transfer these barges”, he stated.
On his side, Pablo de la Rosa, from the Central de Trabajadores Unidos (CTU), asked the Government, in the hands of the new Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources, to investigate why past ministers have violated the law. granting provisional permits.
“We trust that the new minister will take action on the matter, as well as the commitment made by the President in October of last year in the tour he took. We trust and hope that the current authorities comply with the law and the commitment they made to the nation”, he pointed out.
Along with this request, the organizations also delivered to the Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources a study prepared by scientist Rye Howars, of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide (ELAW), which revealed how the thermal, air, noise and vibration pollution of these barges affect the health of the inhabitants of sectors of the area, such as: Calero, Pueblo Nuevo and Maquiteria in Villa Duarte; Los Guandules, Las Cañitas, Santa Bárbara, Villa Francisca, La Barquita, the Colonial City, among others.
The entities that made the request were: the Community Action Program for the Environment (PACMA); the Environmental Commission of Hope for Ozama; the National Network of Resistance and for the Remediation of Environmental Damage; the Institute of Lawyers for the Protection of the Environment (INSAPROMA); the Central de Trabajadores Unidos (CTU) and the National Committee to Fight Climate Change.
