A resident of Salinas, considered one of the most contaminated towns in Puerto Rico, waits for a meeting with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials to start, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023 in Salinas, Puerto Rico. Emboldened by the attention that the federal government has now placed in Salinas, communities are demanding a massive clean-up and penalties for those contaminating a region where residents have long complained about health conditions. (AP Photo/Danica Coto).
Shuttered windows are a permanent fixture in Salinas, an industrial town on Puerto Rico’s southeast coast that is considered one of the U.S. territory’s most contaminated regions.
For years, toxic ash and noxious chemicals from coal-fired and thermoelectric power plants have enveloped this community, and residents have complained about health problems ranging from cancer to Alzheimer’s.
Then last year, a bombshell: Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency traveled to Salinas to announce that the town also has one of the highest concentrations of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas, in a U.S. jurisdiction.
“We’re fighting a lot of battles,” said José Santiago, a 74-year-old retiree.
Emboldened by the attention that the federal government has put on Salinas, Santiago and others are demanding a huge clean-up and penalties for those contaminating the region.
“I will keep fighting until I die,” said Elsa Modesto, a 77-year-old retiree who has not missed a single EPA meeting since last year’s announcement. “I want to know what’s in the environment.”
Puerto Rico ranks 22nd out of 56 U.S. states and territories based on total managed waste released per square mile, at 4.2 million pounds. Six of the top 10 municipalities in that category are in Puerto Rico’s southern region, with Salinas ranked…
2023-01-29 14:52:12 Puerto Rico’s southern region fights for cleaner air, water
Post from phys.org Puerto Rico’s scenic southern region is under threat from numerous environmental hazards that are endangering the area’s air and water quality. Just this week, hundreds of citizens in the municipality of Salinas marched to their municipal hall to demand action against the mounting pollution that has been adversely affecting their lives.
The majority of the environmental danger in the south comes from the landfills, open-air burnings, and industrial operations in the region. Waste from landfills leaches into the ground, creating contaminated areas, while unwatched open-air burning causes a shocking 95% of the total air pollutants in the region according to researchers from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Industrial operations such as rubber plant processing have been linked to elevated levels of arsenic in the region’s water, endangering human health.
At the march this week, community activists came together to demand fully funded programs for greater air and water quality in their region. Hector Santiago, a leader in the push for clean air, said “We are facing an environmental catastrophe here and it’s time to take action. Salinas and our other towns in the south don’t deserve this. We must invest in projects that will really improve our quality of life.”
Various local municipalities have been banding together to combat the threats to their region, gathering support from activists and civic organizations. The south of the island is increasingly getting attention from other parts of the island, with the intention of drawing attention to the environmental suffering that has gone overlooked for too long.
The protests and activism of the citizens of Puerto Rico’s southern region have been met positively, with much hope that better environmental practices and regulations will soon be implemented in the region. Only time and proper support from the government can confirm whether this hope turns into positive change, an outcome everyone in the region is demanding.