SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, Sept. 29, 2016 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Puerto Rico Limpio charged U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator Judith Enck with misleading the people of Puerto Rico today in her announcement over the closure of toxic landfills in Cayey and Arroyo.
“It is disturbing that Administrator McCarthy continues to perpetuate a falsehood that the EPA is closing Puerto Rico’s toxic landfills,” said Hiram J. Torres Montalvo, co-founder of Puerto Rico Limpio. “Today’s announcement from the EPA is aimed at covering up the 2 decades of neglect and dereliction of duty.”
The EPA entered agreements to close 12 municipal landfills since 2007, but the majority of those sites are still toxic and operating out of compliance with federal law. Many of them continue to accept waste, like Vega Baja, Juncos, Florida and others.
Torres Montalvo added, “Cayey and Arroyo have been full for more than 10 years and have been contaminating those communities for much longer, and Judith Enck has known about it since she took office in 2009.”
Recently, Puerto Rico Limpio released a report, “The Poisoning of Puerto Rico,” which disclosed internal EPA documents proving that the Agency has known for over a decade that the majority of Puerto Rico’s municipal landfills are operating in violation of nearly all federal rules and pose an “imminent threat to human health and the environment,” something the EPA knew for over a decade and which during Enck’s tenure was never addressed.
To read the full report, “The Poisoning of Puerto Rico“, and see the internal EPA documents obtained for the report, visit: www.puertoricolimpio.org/the-poisoning-of-puerto-rico/?lang=en
To see a map of Puerto Rico’s toxic landfills that are still in operation, visit: http://puertoricolimpio.org
To learn more about Puerto Rico Limpio, its mission and important information about dangerous, non-compliant landfills, go to: PuertoRicoLimpio.org, Puerto Rico Limpio on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter: @PRLimpioOrg.
CONTACT:
Sheila Angleró Mojica
[email protected]
(787) 387-9954
