"PR#127, Guayanilla-Peñuelas" Project Sets Area-Wide Strategies for Environmental Assessment and Cleanup of Abandoned Petrochemical Sites

(December 6, 2011 – Ponce, Puerto Rico) – Desarrollo Integral del Sur, Inc. (DISUR) will present area-wide strategies for the environmental assessment and cleanup of brownfields across Peñuelas and Guayanilla’s former petrochemical complex in a community meeting, December 14, 2011 at 6PM in the Convention Center of Guayanilla's Barrio Indios neighborhood on Puerto Rico Road 335, KM 10.9.

 

In collaboration with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board, the PR#127 project team collected the most recent environmental studies on the area and performed a rigorous analysis of scientific data. The team is now ready to share its recommendations about what needs to happen in order to assess and cleanup approximately 1,300 acres of industrial lands comprised of 11 abandoned properties.  In addition, the project team will share an interactive map that shows the exact location of the properties, available to the public and potential investors.

 

This project is among several of DISUR’s initiatives whose goal is to promote socio-economic development in South Puerto Rico. “We have listened to the priorities of people who are living in Guayanilla and Peñuelas,” said Jacqueline Rodríguez, Exective Director of DISUR. “Now we are creating a roadmap that will guide future efforts at revitalization, including beautifying the area, creating job opportunities in clean energy and management of solid waste, cultural and educational attractions, and security for the area.”

 

“Nearly 11,000 people live adjacent to the Brownfields in Guayanilla and Peñuelas that for more than 20 years have sat rusting and abandoned, relics of failed economic development strategy,” said project manager, David Southgate. “PR#127 is working with neighbors to change the trajectory of these industrial lands through clean-up and reuse strategies that can put these lands back into productive reuse, placing the health of the neighboring communities at the fore.”

 

In October 2010, the EPA awarded DISUR $175,000 as part of a pilot project for Area-wide Brownfields Planning. According to María Meléndez Altieri, Mayor of Ponce and also President of DISUR, the organization was one of 23 across the United States and the only regional consortium in Puerto Rico to receive this type of grant.

 

The project will be completed in December 2012, when DISUR submits to the EPA and the community its final plan for the cleanup and reuse of abandoned lands adjacent to the communities of Boca, Indios, Magas, Rufina, Playa and Cedro in Guayanilla; and Tallaboa Poniente, Tallaboa Saliente and Encarnación en Peñuelas. As part of its design the planning project includes community conversations, in which the residents of the Brownfield-impacted communities share their knowledge and ideas about future projects they would like to see in the area.

 

“In the next phase of this five phase project, the project team will examine existing infrastructure in the area, including water, sewage, electrical lines, buildings and roads in order to determine how existing infrastructure can be reused to help realize the community’s vision,” said Southgate. “The planning DISUR is doing brings us one step closer to a transformation of the area.”

 

DISUR is a private nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote and maximize competitiveness and sustainable socioeconomic development of the Southern Region. DISUR also integrates the efforts and resources from the public, private, academic sectors, as well as 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 www.disur.org, twitter.com/disurPR, facebook.com/disurPR.

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