Action Alert Puerto Rico

CORALations corals at CARIBE.NET
Tue Jan 4 15:03:11 EST 2000


EPA is in the process of considering a Clean Water Act Waiver for the Dorado Waste Water Treatment Plant [WWTP] with coastal discharge in Puerto Rico. This plant has not yet been constructed. Please sign on the following letter to EPA by  Friday, January 7.  Forward your Name, Title, (Org, Company or Academic Affiliation), and Address to corals at caribe.net. 

Jeanne Fox 
Regional Administrator
EPA Region II
290 Broadway
New York, NY, 10007
 
January 7, 2000

Re: Dorado Regional WWTP Section 301(h) Application

Dear Ms. Fox: 

    CORALations, a non-profit ocean conservation organization based in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the following concerned individuals and organizations are writing to ask that you deny the second round Clean Water Act Waiver [301h] application for the Dorado Waste Water Treatment Plant [WWTP], a primary plant which has yet to be built 27 years after the Clean Water Act was passed by the U.S. Congress.  Despite opposition expressed at public hearings by the local community, by the Puerto Rico Hotel and Tourism Association, and by a number of local conservation organizations and technical experts, the Dorado WWTP proposal is in the process of obtaining its final Puerto Rico Government permits before the Government of Puerto Rico submits their second round Clean Water Act Waiver application to EPA. 
 
    As you know, the Dorado WWTP is proposed for construction in a coastal flood plain. The diffuser pipe will be located less than a mile offshore and will terminate at a depth of just over 100 feet. The plant is being built with the capacity to discharge up to 30 mgd heavily chlorinated sewage into warm shallow tropical coastal waters, near coral reef. 
    
    EPA has stated a firm deadline in writing to Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority [PRASA] on more than one occasion. In a letter to Mr. Perfecto Ocasio of PRASA dated December 16, 1998, you wrote:
 
    EPA, in consultation with PRASA, identified additional interim dates for the         milestones essential to ensure that PRASA will submit to EPA, a complete         application with all the required certifications by December 15, 1999.
 
    In a previous letter from William J. Muszynski, Deputy Regional Administrator to Benjamin Pomales of PRASA, dated December 4, 1999, Mr. Muszynski stated: 
        
    Under this one time right to revise, PRASA should submit, with the letter of         intent, a schedule for the submittal of a complete revised application within the     one year period. No extensions of this one year period will be allowed. If                 PRASA fails to submit all elements of a complete, revised application by             the end of this period, EPA will lift the stay and proceed to take final action to         deny PRASA's application. Moreover, if PRASA fails to meet any of the                 scheduled dates for submission of various elements of a complete revised             application during the one year period, EPA may proceed to take final action         to deny PRASA's application.
 
    We respectfully ask that consistent with these previously stated intentions, EPA deny the second round Clean Water Act Waiver [301h] application for the proposed Dorado WWTP in Puerto Rico.  

Sincerely,  

Mary Ann Lucking
Project Coordinator


enc.  Dec. 16, 1998 EPA Letter to PRASA
        Dec.  4,  1997 EPA Letter to PRASA

cc.   Mr. Chuck Fox


For more information or fax copies of the above mentioned EPA letters, contact: 
Mary Ann Lucking
Project Coordinator
CORALations
PMB 222
5900 Isla Verde Ave. L2
Carolina, PR  00979-4901
corals at caribe.net
toll free: 1-877-77coral
  
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