SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico, May 10, 2016 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The multi-sectoral citizen’s group Puerto Rico Limpio sent a letter to Congressman Raúl Grijalva, Ranking Member of the U.S. House Committee on National Resources, to warn him and denounce the crisis Puerto Rico is living through with 22 of its 27 municipal landfills that are violating federal and local laws.
The co-founder of the group and its spokesman, Hiram Torres Montalvo, said that he was taking advantage of Grijalva’s visit to the Island to call his attention to the public health and environmental threat from the non-compliant landfills that are toxic for communities. “In the letter, he pointed out to the Congressman that 80% of our landfills have been out of compliance with federal and state regulations for a long time, but continue to operate and put in danger the health of the people and the environment. We told him in the letter about the specific problems like the outflow of toxic liquids that end up in bodies of water and drinking water systems. We also pointed out that the majority of the active cells of landfills are not adequately covered and there are no systems to control the accumulation of methane gas as required by law,” he said.
In the letter, the Congressman is also informed that many of the non-compliant landfills are close to residential communities and/or close to parks recreation zones, schools and main roadways.
“We want to alert him that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB) know about and have documented all of these irregularities at the landfills, but they still remain open and continue to operate without controls. The problem of trash and the landfills that are out of compliance is an environmental injustice to the people of Puerto Rico and action can no longer be delayed in addressing it, and for that we put ourselves at his disposal to share information on the matter now and in the future.”
To know more about Puerto Rico Limpio, its mission and important information about unsafe and non-compliant landfills, visit: PuertoRicoLimpio.org, Puerto Rico Limpio on Facebook, and/or follow us on Twitter at: @PRLimpioOrg
