SANTO DOMINGO.- The San Felipe power plants spews soot that ends up on the city, prompting the closing of as many as 60 restaurants and hotels in Costambar and Cofresí, two of the Atlantic coast’s main tourist resorts and the pullout of investors who were operating in the area, newspaper Listin says.

It says it has also caused the death of two dolphins in the aquatic park Ocean World and has affected the health of residents in adjacent communities.

Costambar Proprietor Association president Jose A. Polanco said the plant’s installation in 1995 violated a 1972 law that established Puerto Plata’s Costa Ambar as a high-priority tourism demarcation to promote its development and protect its environment. “It has taken the entire zone, Cofresí as well as Costambar to bankruptcy.”

But the losses haven’t just been economic because in 2000, five years after the plant began operating the province realized, via studies, that the soot is producing respiratory and vision ailments in residents.

Polanco said the studies have determined that the former Smith & Enron plant’s smokestack spews soot with various toxins including sulfur, which has brought about water and air pollution.