Exclusive for Dominican Today

By Billy Adams, and the DT staff

PEPILLO SALCEDO.- In the wake of simultaneous hearings against several former officials and others charged in the case of the rockash dumped in the main ports at Montecristi and Samana provinces, new revelations have surfaced in Montecristi regarding the true nature of the material’s toxicity.

In addition, Dominican Today has learned that the firm Trans Dominicana de Desarrollo (TDD), which according to the case documents is also headed by one of the major suspects in the scandal, the former San Cristobal senator Antonio Rosario Pimentel, was the managing agent for the port at Manzanillo, whose official name is Pepillo Salcedo.

This company abrogated it’s responsibilities in maintaining the port to International Standards, which resulted in many shipping lines refusing to dock there until those requirement were met.

So far the investigation has established that in 2003, during the administration of president Hipolito Mejia, former vice-minister of the Environment Rene Ledesma “authorized” TDD to bring in at least 22 barge-loads of a substance rockash from a power plant in Puerto Rico to this township, with a similar amount being deposited in the port Arroyo Barril, in Samana province.

But what has not surfaced from media reports is that some of the barges dumped more of this substance at the mouth of the Masacre river, on the Haitian side of the border, an amount which the probe has yet not established.

Locally, the imported material was used to “pave” the TDD compound and to fill potholes in the road between Manzanillo and Copey, to the East, before the reports of its danger to human health surfaced.

Technicians consulted said that rockash – a byproduct from the burning of the fuel in power plants- is not a toxic in and of itself, but because it is usually associated with another substance, called “fly ash” produced in the “purging” process for smoke stacks, the new combination is no longer “inert.”

The experts affirmed that these two substances are normally kept separate and disposed of in accordance with International Environmental protocol. This procedure was not followed in this case. The rockash and the fly ash were mixed together prior to the shipments and as a result, a ‘toxic” blend was deposited. In addition, it is alleged that the importers did not receive proper import permits, and is one of the prosecution’s main aspects in the case.

Local residents demand that it be removed

Prior to the change of administration, Government agencies initially were reluctant to take action with regard a cleanup of the substance, with excuses ranging from being “too expensive” and where do we put it,” to finger pointing for political reasons.

Despite that some reluctance still exists, the preliminary hearings have been scheduled in Montecristi, and similar judicial actions are underway in Samana.

But the people of this port town, who desperately want the substance removed, might have a long wait, as an initial site to bury the rockash, in San Cristobal province, has already met with stiff opposition from environmental groups there.

Others have suggested that, to clean it up, the toxic agent could be removed or rendered harmless to the surroundings and the village.

Possible solutions also include the building a dam around the area and covering it with plastic and asphalt, sealing the substance from normal erosion and leaching into the groundwater, protecting the shallow soil on an ancient limestone reef.