Let’s talk about how the government is dumping toxic ash on the people of our island. In truth, this dumping is occurring in one of the poorest sectors in Puerto Rico. Tallaboa, Peñuelas, is a small fisher community of people who have lived there for generations and can’t or won’t move out and live elsewhere. However, these residents want healthy lives and their voices heard. Organizations in Tallaboa like Movimiento Contra Las Cenizas en Puerto Rico have been trying to educate the island as well as open the eyes of those who don’t think there’s anything wrong with ash dumping. Just as well, artists have raised their voices, such as Herminio Rodríguez, who made a photography collection titled “Contaminados,” which featured politicians, actors, civilians, among other personalities.
“Breathing Ash,” front page of the Claridad newspaper from 2016.
The ash that is being dumped in Tallaboa comes from the Applied Energy System company (AES) in Guayama. Back in 1990, it was legally decided that its carbon residues would be exported and disposed out of the island. Then, why are Peñuelas, Salinas, Arroyo, Humacao, and Guayama suffering toxic ash consequences? AES “played the game” by exporting the ashes and residue to the Dominican Republic. The effects on the population were catastrophic—lung lesions and congenital defects in newborns like missing limbs or abortions. The Dominican Republic’s Supreme Court judges defined “rockash” as “a radioactive trash or industrial waste that degraded half of the environment in Samaná.” They also spoke out on the severe effects it had on their marine fauna, since the ash was deposited near the sea. After almost being sued by this country, AES had to stop the exportating ash.
Between 2005 and 2014, these same toxic ashes were dumped in Puerto Rican soil. Millions of tons were used as soil filling in neighborhoods as well as shopping centers. By 2014, affected communities’ claims had accumulated to such a large amount that the use of the ashes had to be stopped. However, the Environmental Quality Board (Junta de Calidad Ambiental) of P.R. and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified the ashes as a non-dangerous solid waste that could be deposited in the island’s landfills. At the same time, they acknowledged the ashes contained toxic components such as mercury, arsenic, and cadmium.
So, the ashes are not dangerous, but they’re composed of toxic materials.
On July of 2017, Law 40, which prohibited the deposit and disposal of coal ash or coal combustion waste in Puerto Rico, was signed. It specifically referred to “fly ash,” as the most toxic and dangerous variant of ash. Even after this law was signed, AES fabricated their plot-twists to do as they desired. Since July 11th of that same year, over 100 trucks per week deposit coal ash in the EC Waste landfill in Peñuelas.
These ashes contain toxic materials such as arsenic, mercury, boron, chrome, copper, iron, nickel, aluminum, nitrate, phosphate, uranium, among 15 others. The EPA has concluded that the effects the ashes cause on the body are catastrophic. Some of these effects include:
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Brain damage
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Breathing problems (like asthma and obstructions in the lungs)
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Thyroid problems
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Heart (cardiovascular) problems
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Cancer
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Damage to the liver, kidneys and intestines
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For more information on these heavy metals that are radioactive as well as cancer-causing, log on to cenizaspr.org
Part of Herminio Rodríguez exposition “Contaminados” (“Contaminated”).
Day by day, new evidence of the effects come to light. While AES found a loophole and “turned fly ash into ‘Agremax’” or rockash (the same type of ash that was banned in the Dominican Republic) so as to be able to deposit it in Peñuelas without legal obstruction, it was just a pretty lie. The EPA found that 80% of this “Agremax” is actually “fly ash” and thus, highly toxic. The doctor Rafael Rodríguez, Secretary of the Health Department, explained how the toxic materials of fly or rock ash can come into the human body by inhalation and become absorbed through the skin.
Such contradictions prove how these federal and state agencies recognize the toxicity of ashes but try their hardest to hide this through unreliable tests, ambiguous vocabulary and faulty regulations. Until these federal and state agencies stop bypassing scientific evidence, the people in Tallaboa will keep fighting against those trucks that come at 4:00 a.m. and the police force that treats them like criminals for defending their homes. In the meantime, civil movements will continue to spread the word and educate the people. Next time you’re stuck in a red light and someone wearing a facemask offers you a brochure, don’t be close-minded. Join the fight for your health!