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Posted: Tue Mar 11th, 2008 12:00 pm |
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EPA Fines Authority for the Port of the Americas for Contractor
Dredging Violations
Contact: Elias Rodriguez (212) 637-3664, rodriguez.elias@epa.gov
(San Juan, P.R. Mar. 10, 2008) Demonstrating its strong commitment to protect our oceans and marine life, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced that it has reached a
settlement with the Authority for the Port of the Americas requiring
it to pay a penalty of $308,000 for improper disposal of dredged
material. On a number of occasions in the spring and summer of 2006,
Weeks Marine, Inc., a Port of the Americas contractor, dumped
material dredged to create the port in areas other than those
designated for ocean disposal by EPA in its federal permit. Sites
permitted to receive sediment dredged from harbors and navigational
channels are carefully screened before they are designated. The
region around the port area in Ponce, Puerto Rico includes coral
reefs and other ecologically sensitive areas, which must be avoided.
These dredged sediment should have been put in the designated area,
which was chosen because placing material there has minimal impacts
on the ocean environment,said Alan J. Steinberg, EPA Regional
Administrator. Poor communication and oversight on the contractor's
part meant that on numerous occasions the material did not make it to
the designated spot. To protect our waters, fish habitats and other
marine life, EPA requires dredging contractors to take proper
precautions and follow strict placement guidelines or face the
consequences.
Maintaining the navigational depths of ports and harbors is crucial
to regional economic well-being, especially in Puerto Rico, where the
majority of products and materials are brought to the island by ship.
The Authority for the Port of the Americas was issued a permit by the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorizing the dredging of
approximately 5.5 million cubic yards of sediment to improve
channels, basins and berths in the Port of Ponce located in Ponce,
Puerto Rico. This sediment was to be placed into a disposal site
known as the Ponce Harbor disposal site, an approximately one square
nautical mile area located in deep water (329 to 457 meters) about
4.5 nautical miles south of the entrance to Ponce Harbor.
In March 2006, 4,000 cubic yards of dredged material was mistakenly
discharged from a Weeks’ barge while it was being serviced outside
the Ponce Harbor disposal site. Records indicate that this discharge
resulted from a lack of communication and coordination between the
two captains and the watch engineer.
In April 2006, a 3,500 cubic yard barge load of dredged material was
released outside the Ponce Harbor disposal site. Records indicate
that the barge doors delayed in opening and a lack of attention on
the part of the captain allowed the load to be discharged after the
barge had moved out of the designated site.
In July 2006, the captain prematurely turned off the system used to
monitor materials being discharged from the vessel and dropped 4,000
cubic yards of dredged material when the vessel was no longer in the
Ponce Harbor disposal site.
Finally, EPA determined that, on various occasions, dredged material
was lost from barges while underway and en route to the Ponce Harbor
site. These incidents highlight the critical need to ensure that
dredging, transportation, and disposal of sediments are carefully
performed. It is unlawful to discharge dredged material into the
ocean outside designated areas. These spills could have been avoided
by paying closer attention to adjusting loading levels to match sea
conditions, by properly maintaining the equipment used for
transporting dredged material and by following site management and
monitoring plans designed to avoid impacts to ecologically sensitive
areas.
CORALations comment: This is quite a violation to frame as an accident! OOPS we accidently turned off the monitoring device before dumping....... It is a shame the option of ocean dumping was even permitted! $308,000 is the cost of doing business and serves more as an endorsement than a warming for future polluters. We are not surprised. The Government's of Puerto Rico and EPA continue to permit 5 large, municipal, regional, outdated (primary) waste water treatment plants to discharge into Puerto Rico's stressed coastal waters........30 years after the Clean Water Act said waste water had to be treated to at least a secondary treatment level before discharge. We continue to wait for EPA to take NPDES storm water discharge action on projects in Culebra. Last EPA site visit was Dec 19th and we wait in Casablanca...and wait.....The few reef fish left in Culebra's bay will have evolved lungs before the agency actually moves on these projects, which are moving at light speed...sometimes working with heavy equipment well into the night. The fish will need lungs, since they cannot breath mud through their gills. These dense projects are physically redirecting the flow of the muddy runoff under roads and into coastal waters of the bay. And culebra waters are designated as critical habitat...... Bendito EPA .........Bendito Weeks.........Bendito Puerto Rico
____________________
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