SANTO DOMINGO.- The Community Action Program for the Environment (PACMA) deposited before the Superior Administrative Court (TSA) an anticipated precautionary measure in order to annul resolution 0022-221 granted by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to the company Seaboard, which modified its environmental license and authorized the installation of the Estrella de Mar III power generation plant on the Ozama River without the proper permits and without complying with all the corresponding legal processes.
PACMA stated that this resolution dated April 30, 2021, modified the renewed environmental license 0003-01 dated March 30, 2020, granted in favor of Seaboard, which authorizes the operation of the Estrella de Mar III plant, “but It consigns it as a replacement for the Estrella de Mar II barge and, however, what the company did was put both plants into parallel operation. In addition, that same resolution granted a non-renewable term of 2 years for Estrella de Mar III to be transferred.”
The PACMA stated that “the permanence of the effects of this unusual resolution issued by the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, supposes a license to affect the environment of the entire territorial zone where Estrella de Mar II is located, while that these new machines – which are not related to the original license – are placed without the proper permits and outside of the due administrative process”.
The entity that defends natural resources also considers that this decision, contained in the aforementioned administrative resolution, was issued in clear violation of the rules that govern the system for the protection of the environment and natural resources, to the detriment of the general interest.
It understands that there is an urgency for the adoption of the precautionary measure, since, if the aforementioned resolution is not suspended, there would be irreparable effects on the environment.
In this sense, the PACMA also asked the TSA to order that Seaboard refrain from continuing to operate the Estrella de Mar II project, until the contentious-administrative appeal is decided.
The PACMA indicated that it made this decision to request an early precautionary measure “to guarantee the rights of the petitioner and to put an end to the imminent damage and the manifestly illicit disturbance that the environment in the Dominican Republic is suffering, as well as to guarantee the effectiveness of eventual appeals in jurisdictional venue in nullity of this manifestly illegal resolution”.
The president of PACMA, Ysaias Lara Kevelier, said that: “The Community Action Program for the Environment has just deposited a precautionary measure with the TSA to stop resolution 0022-2021 issued by the Ministry of the Environment last year. With this measure we intend to revoke that resolution and stop the operations of the Seaboard plant on the Ozama River due to the damage it causes, both to the environment and to the residents of its surroundings, both in Calero, Timbeque, Villa Duarte and all the communities. who live around the Ozama River”.
Lara Kevelier added that the aforementioned resolution also violates the Environmental Law and article 66 of the Constitution of the Republic, which calls for a healthy environment for citizens, “and we understand that it violates all environmental regulations because it was taken from completely arbitrary way.
Prior to the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources issuing resolution 0022-221 of April 30, 2021, on February 21, 2018, it issued environmental license No. 0003-01-renewed in favor of Seaboard, to order for the Estrella de Mar II plant to operate, regardless of the due environmental impact studies and corresponding surveys.
The PACMA is an entity whose purpose is the protection of the environment, dedicating itself to defending before the courts the judicial order and the claim of collective and diffuse rights in favor of the future of Dominicans.
