The New Republic has a must read post on the environmental and health impacts to Puerto Rico’s people since Hurricane Maria slammed into the island like a wrecking ball. The article notes that 157 EPA staff are on the ground, focusing on debris piles and hazardous materials. The port needs to be cleared of damaged and sunken ships, as well as other submerged debris, before any of these materials can be shipped off island.
Emily Atkin writes:
Meanwhile, a public health and pollution crisis is still unfolding. A 15-page draft report on the island’s post-hurricane environmental situation—prepared by members of Puerto Rico’s National Association of Environmental Law and the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico, and provided to The New Republic—details multiple concerns: Contaminated drinking water remains a problem for potentially millions of people. The proliferation of diesel generators across the island are spewing air pollution and threatening to exacerbate respiratory health conditions. A five-story pile of heavy-metal-laden coal ash next to a community of 45,000 was left uncovered during the storm, and photos purport to show the waste mountain has eroded. That ash could be in nearby soil, groundwater, drinking water sources—no one really knows.
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Ruth Santiago, one of the report’s authors, is intimately familiar with the island’s environmental problems. In the southern city of Salinas, where she lives and works as a environmental activist, large electricity generators whir at all hours, powering her neighbors’ refrigerators and fans. “The fumes emitted by these generators are nothing less than noxious, and the noise is unbearable, making sleep very difficult,” she wrote recently. “At night, I battle the noise of the emergency generators by listening to the radio. I also wear a face mask, to cover my nose and mouth, as a way to combat the fumes somewhat.”
She’s not the only one who needs a facemask. Puerto Rico has become known as “Generator Island” since the loss of the vast majority of the electric grid, as diesel and gas generators have become one of the only options for reliable power. In October, the Times noted that the generators are “raising health and safety concerns,” since they can cause carbon monoxide poisoning. But three months of widespread, ongoing diesel generator use presents a different problem: Diesel exhaust, which “contains more than 40 toxic air contaminants, including many known or suspected cancer-causing substances, such as benzene, arsenic, and formaldehyde,” according to one study. That study also notes that “up to 70 percent of cancer risk attributable to inhalation of toxic air pollutants in the United States arise from diesel exhaust.” In October, FEMA warned Puerto Ricans using generators to protect themselves against fire, electrocution, and carbon monoxide poisoning, but didn’t mention air pollution.
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The EPA also did not respond to a request to clarify the status of the five-story coal ash mountain in Guayama, a southern city of 45,000 people. In October, a spokesperson told The New Republic that the agency “heard from AES representatives that their facility suffered minor damages but that the coal ash pile was not affected by Hurricane Maria’s winds and waters.” But La Perla del Sur, a newspaper based in southern Puerto Rico, reports that the storm “eroded,” “weathered,” and “cracked” the pile. “I would like to know if AES has done any study where they can demonstrate that nearby communities in Guayama and [the nearby city of] Salinas did not receive ashes,” Alvarado Guzmán, a spokesperson for a local environmental group, told the paper. AES did not respond to a request for comment.
EPA has not responded on the status of the 5 story coal ash pile that may have washed through Guayama.
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