Thousands of dead fish wash up in Puerto Rico

Latuya wrote:

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Are you really checking your facts? This article states, the San Juan Estuary Program official reason for the fish kill is poor water circulation. Don't you think an illegal raw sewage spill would have been big news especially after a previous fish kill 18 months ago in the same area?
Poor circulation promotes algae growth which depletes water oxygen levels. Maybe your name should be Presumption instead of Factchecker.

Justhefacts wrote:

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I wouldn't believe much in any article of an official in P.R. Heres how they operate. I have personally seen the reefs there over the years die from sewage discharge. I have seen toilet paper in the reefs of raw discharge. Another example of how P.R. operates. Some years ago the Mayor of Viegues built a baseball stadium and it was all but completed but OOPS they never thought about the Sewage Discharge situation. Its vacant as of 4 years ago. The other island Culerba had new sewer lines put in a while ago and the houses hooked up. Oops they forgot to build the treatment plant and all the new sewer lines back up. So as things are done there they took a backhoe and broke the line and let it run to the sea.
Last year P.Rs. Daily Sun had a picture of a bunch of men and women from a court with a tape measure measuring how far the surf is to a sea wall and a BIG building behind it being built and the second floor going ON already.The caption read They were seeing if the building was being too close to the surf.
You can NOT compare P.S. to the states in following rules and environmental regs. I have been doing construction work there for over 20 years and its like another world. I LOVE Puerto Rico. I have so many Puerto Rican Friends there. But you have to realize that over 40% of the school kids quit school. I've dealt with a water engineer that tried to tell me if a street water pipe has 80lbs of pressure and you add another pipe then it will only be 40 lbs because its another pipe. This is an Aqua ENGINEER in P.R.
Just to show you how they think of Impact studies this week they are pouring new concrete runoff curbs. digging up the street and at the down hill side to Molonas Beach there is a new culdasact in Crete. As I looked this hilly area and saw the earth dug up with barely a silt fence to contain sediment runoff right below all of this is a Beautiful Reef thats get this "Protected" and

atlantaGeekFreak30127 wrote:

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An honest answer to your "Don't you think an illegal raw sewage spill would have been big news" I'd have to say no not in San juan puerto Rico.

Factchecker wrote:

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I'm reporting as an eyewitness and from local Puerto Rican news as I stated, not from "California."
What causes an algae bloom? Not enough circulation? Too much fertilizer, as in RAW SEWAGE. These coastal fish kills happen all over Puerto Rico, not just in THIS lagoon.
Maybe you should check YOUR facts!

atlantaGeekFreak30127 wrote:

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An honest answer to your "Don't you think an illegal raw sewage spill would have been big news" I'd have to say no not in San juan puerto Rico.

NOT REALLY wrote:

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You must have very little confidence in the Federal government. The EPA is present in PR and I have seen them fine municipalities, the state governement and corporations and builders in PR millions of dollars for violating strict Federal codes. I too keep up with the news in PR. I would think that a story so well publicized in the San Juan area would have been fodder for the EPA and an investigation would have been imminent along with subsequent news stories and fines.

Factchecker wrote:

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I you keep up with the news in Puerto Rico you MUST know that the EPA has fined several municipalities millions of dollars for failing to close water polluting land fills but not a cent has been paid by those municipalities.
By the way, did you read in the Caribbean Business about Crashboat Beach in Aguadilla and the beach in Patillas being closed this week due to the fecal matter in the water? Blame it on the rain. Actually, many coastal municipalities wait for the rain to purposely dump the fecal holding lagoons into the rivers. We used to watch the color of the effluent change as sewage was discharged into the Rio Camuy after a heavy rain.

NOT REALLY wrote:

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Your assertion is based on what?

atlantaGeekFreak30127 wrote:

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Visiting their on several occasions and with my own eyes observing how few seem to care about such.

NOT REALLY wrote:

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That story was years old. How do you know that the municipalities have not paid the fines? Do you have a link to the story? The Federal government has the power to reduce or refuse federal funds to those municipalities that refuse to pay the fines.

Factchecker wrote:

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Read about the failure of municipalities to pay the Federal fines in the island English newspapers. Of course, there is no internet link to those newspapers.

NOT REALLY wrote:

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You would have to show me something substantial. The Federal government wields great power and enforces it, unlike the PR state government. The fact is that the EPA often makes agreements with the municipalities to forego payment in return for acceptance of culpability and subsequent remedy of the violation. In those cases they do not have to pay the fines.

Factchecker wrote:

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EPA Fines Six Municipalities Across Puerto Rico for Improper Stormwater Management (07/22/2009)
(San Juan, P.R.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed individual complaints against the municipalities of Cayey, Hatillo, Las Piedras, Loiza, Rio Grande and Toa Alta in Puerto Rico for failing to comply with federal Clean Water Act requirements related to stormwater management for small municipal sewer systems. The six municipalities face a total amount of $291,177 in fines.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6fa7... !OpenDocument

NOT REALLY wrote:

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Yes, I am aware of these municipalities being fined. There was an article a few days ago about this in Caribbean Business. My contention is about them NOT paying the fines. Where is the proof of that?

Factchecker wrote:

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While I told you about the report the municipalities didn't pay the fine published by the Puerto Rican English newspapers, who else would report this as news--Puerto Rico municipalities NOT doing something they are ordered to do. The municipalities were fined because they didn't close these land fills as they were ordered to do.
This current fining for water pollution (which is the actual subject of this thread) happened it July according to the EPA documents I found. And WHERE would they get any money to pay the fines? I suppose they could withhold social security contributions from their municipal employees and use THAT money for some other purpose, as so many Puerto Rican municipalities have done in the past. Kick the can down the road.

NOT REALLY wrote:

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I don't know about all of that. I contacted the EPA office in San Juan about your allegations. They were not confirmed. The EPA official stated that some of the municipalities do not pay the fines in lieu of complying with the order to remediate the problem. This is done only under special agreement with the municipality and the EPA. The monies collected go directly to the Treasury Department of the U.S.