EPA awards brownfields grant to DISUR

Ponce, Puerto Rico - The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a grant for Desarrollo Integral del Sur, Inc. (DISUR) in the amount of $175,000 as part of its Pilot Areawide Brownfields Planning project, directed at communities in the United States and Puerto Rico.

 

The funds will be used to plan the assessment, cleanup and rehabilitation of 3,500 acres comprising nine communities in the rural municipalities to Guayanillla and Peñuelas, better known as the area of CORCO.This was announced DISUR executive director, engineer Viviam Y. Puig. 

 

The initiative will be conducted in coordination with representatives from area communities, municipal governments, educational components, among others. Puig said that the proposal has been endorsed by the municipalities of Guayanilla and Peñuelas, whose participation will raise the value of the project to $275,000.The planning project will be implemented during a span of two years.

 

The Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board and the Committee for Health, Environment and Development, a community group representing residents Peñuelas sectors Incarnation Tallaboa Outgoing, and Tallaboa Poniente, also support this initiative.

 

"We are very excited about the opportunity we have in DISUR to plan the reconstruction and rehabilitation of brownfield sites for the benefit of communities. We will serve as project facilitators, taking into account the environment, cleanliness and the needs of the residents of this area.Everything will be oriented and focused towards the welfare of these disadvantaged communities, Puig said, while noting that DISUR was the only recipient of these funds in Puerto Rico. "We intend to continue these efforts to address other areas that have been severely impacted in the Southern Region," she said.

 

According to the executive director 10,991 people live in the affected corridor.  Various petrochemical plants have occupied the area since 1950, where there exist abandoned chemicals, oil refining facilities and old units for the treatment of toxic waste.On the other hand, the population has been declining, and unemployment has reached about 20 percent.

 

"Cleaning and revitalizing these contaminated sites will bring new businesses, new homes and new jobs in a cleaner and healthier environment, and that is precisely what DISUR aims for our region," said Puig.

 

DISUR is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to promote and maximize the competitiveness and sustainable socioeconomic development of the Southern Region. DISUR also integrates the efforts and resources of public, private, academia and the citizen who are residents of the southern area in order to achieve a better quality of life.The organization brings together the efforts of fifteen communities in south Puerto Rico: Adjuntas, Arroyo, Coamo, Guanica, Guayama, Guayanilla, Jayuya, Juana Diaz, Patillas, Peñuelas, Ponce, Salinas, Santa Isabel, Villalba, and Yauco.For more information visit  disur.blup.me, twitter.com/disurPR or facebook.com/disurPR.