Gaspar Hern?ndez sand removal

B

Bob Boyd

Active member
Feb 3, 2004
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Here is information on the on going problem of sand being taken from the beaches in Gaspar Hern?ndez.

In October, a letter of complaint was delivered to the Secretary of the Environment, Jaime David, in the capital. His department rejected the application by the Sindicato (trucker?s union) for a new permit to remove sand from Las Canas. Everything was quiet for about two weeks and, just when we thought we had a victory on our hands, the Sindicato somehow managed to obtain a new permit in Puerto Plata giving them permission to remove sand until Christmas.

Some of us have our own theories as to how this new permit may have been obtained. It does seem a bit strange for officials in Puerto Plata to issue a permit for the removal of sand in Espaillat ? sort of like New York issuing a permit for the removal of sand in Pennsylvania. The Sindicato is trying to calm people in Las Canas by reminding them that the permit is only good until Christmas... But, we?ve heard that story many times before.

Further complaints to the capital have fallen on deaf ears. While we have been told that the government sees this as an important issue, especially in light of recent high profile shut-downs of sand trucks in Bani, nobody seems to want to do anything about it.

As of now, we are seeing 40-60 trucks per day and the road is impassable without a 4-wheel drive.

The following is some basic math that shows what is happening.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=1ebd52e8a8&view=att&th=11db6621354dd265&attid=0.1&disp=vah&zw
 
J

JRMirador

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Oct 15, 2008
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Las Lomas de Azua
Boyd, the only way to stop it, is calling the Environment Minister, Jaime David Fernandez Mirabel, on his cellphone. He surely doesn't know what's going on. This sand business is most probably run by high ranking military officers. I'm sure you can get the Minister's cellphone number.
 
T

tflea

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Jun 11, 2006
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Anybody

Someone tell me the last time you saw a truck leaving La Boca in Las Canas after Monday, Nov. 16th. Plz let me know. I understand it has been stopped since then.
 
Tamborista

Tamborista

hasta la tambora
Apr 4, 2005
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You are cutting and pasting to a GOOGLE page that requries a log on to GOOGLE Bro!

Find the article and paste that link.
 
B

Bob Boyd

Active member
Feb 3, 2004
272
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Sorry about the link,

This is the basic info in English only, without the art work

How Serious is the Sand Extraction
Problem in Las Canas?
One truck = 14 cubic meters of sand
50 trucks per day = 700 cubic meters per day
6 days per week = 4,200 cubic meters per week
52 weeks per year = 218,400 cubic meters per year

Las Canas Beach, from the mouth of the river to Villa
Lobos is 3.2km long by an average of 12 meters wide
That’s 38,400 square meters

If one were to dig down and remove our ENTIRE beach to a
depth of 15 feet, that would be 218,400 cubic meters, or
the amount of sand being removed each year

If we don’t stop the sand trucks now, there won’t be
any beach left in Las Canas!
 
B

Bob Boyd

Active member
Feb 3, 2004
272
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The following is an update from Mark Yellen to the Las Canas neighbors as of Tuesday, 9 Dec.
Today, 23 trucks returned to Las Canas saying they had a permit to extract sand. Three got in and out before we could do anything about it. The rest were impounded for a few hours, sent to dump their sand back at the mouth of the river and then let go.

A visit to the Gaspar Hernandez office of the Medioambiente yielded a response of “the permit is on the way from the capital”.
A call to the Santiago office of the Medioambiente was responded to with “they went over our head”.

So... We called in the calvary.

11 air force commandos came to Las Canas (just in time) and shut down the whole operation. Jose Paliza (representing Harlequin Properties), Junior Henriquez (a local journalist and land owner in Las Canas), me and several of the leaders of the Sindicato de Camioneros went to the air force base to meet with the General and discuss matters. After a lot of yelling back and forth (you should have seen Jose Paliza arguing with the truckers – I’d love to have him on my side in court some day) and just when we thought the meeting was going nowhere, a helicopter with Jaime David (the secretary of the medioambiente) landed at the base. We didn’t know he was coming but the smile on the General’s face told us that he knew Jaime was on the way.

For those of you who don’t know – Jaime David used to be the Vice President of the Dominican Republic and is now in charge of the environment. He has taken a hard line against all violations of environmental policy. He has the final say.

The attached photo is of Jaime David (in red) telling the local secretary of the Trucker’s Union (and several officers of the union) that (a) THERE IS NO PERMIT TO EXTRACT SAND (b) HE HAS NO INTENTION TO ISSUE A PERMIT (c) the next time he gets a call like this, the trucks will be impounded for more than a few hours and (c) we all need to go to his office in the capital tomorrow to talk about this some more.

One interesting thing that came out of this meeting: we finally (after asking for almost two years) got a copy of the supposed “permit” from the sindicato. It was issued in 2003 and is for the extraction of 10,000 cubic meters of sand. With the 200,000+ cubic meters that have been extracted each year, I’d day we can all be confident it is beyond expired. If anyone wants a copy, please let me know – I will be happy to email it to you.

For those of you concerned about my safety, after the mob of truckers threatened to kill me in front of the air force guards today, the general has sent two air force intelligence officers to live at my house for a while. Interesting guests...

Thank you again for your support.

Mark
 
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T

tflea

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Jun 11, 2006
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Excellent

Really good news. Keep yourselves safe and hope your grocery bill doesn't get out of control with your new guests.
 
M

Markf128

Guest
My best wishes to you and my respects for your valor. It seems that dim-witted individuals don’t know any better than to try to intimidate others.
 
H

headnerd

New member
Dec 28, 2006
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First of all, I want to thank everyone for their support on this issue. The way the community has rallied behind me on this issue is what kept me going - even in the face of some danger or adverse circumstances.

I think we have reached a final solution that will put an end to sand extraction before February 1st. While we have seen deadlines come and go in the past, I think this one will stick because so many people are now involved.

Our meeting with Jaime David two days ago in Santo Domingo went well. Mr. David is the former Vice President of the Dominican Republic and is now the Secretary of the Environment. I have recently been told that his mother is one of the famed Mirabal sisters. To say that he has deep roots in the improvement of this country would be an understatement.

The meeting was attended by various members of Mr. David’s staff, the President and Secretary of the trucker’s union (representing the sand extractors), Jose Paliza, Juan Paliza, me and Rafael Olivares (representing the environment of Las Canas).

The complaints that many of us sent to DR-CAFTA were the lynchpin: in the middle of the meeting, Mr. David pulled out one of the complaints, waved it in the air and told the union officials that he cannot be soft on this issue because “the world is watching.”

In the end, we agreed to allow the extraction of up to 500 more truckloads of sand before February 1st 2009, under very strict conditions. Then, the sand extraction ends permanently. While I hate to see even one more shovel of sand disappear from our beach, I think this was the right compromise, as it soothes some of the violent tensions that are in the air and also avoids a lawsuit regarding the validity of permits. The extraction will not begin until a contract has been signed by the truckers union, representatives of the Las Canas community and by the government insuring that the strict conditions will be adhered to.

The conditions are:

No more than 500 truckloads may be removed.
The work must be completed before February 1st – if fewer than 500 are removed, the additional truckloads will be forfeited.
Trucks must be smaller than 10 cubic meters – no more jumbo dump trucks.
Work may not begin before 8am and must finish prior to 5pm. No work on Sunday.
No deep holes will be allowed.
All sand must be removed by hand. No heavy machinery may be used to dig the beach.
A clear boundary has been defined as to where the trucks and diggers may go.
The entire operation will be monitored and accounted for by the Puerto Plata office of the Medioambiente.
The deacon of the church in Las Canas will also monitor the operation.
After the 500 truckloads, there will be no more removal of sand from Las Canas beach by anyone.


If they continue at a pace of 40 truckloads per day, this should all be over in about 2 weeks. Another 5,000 cubic meters of sand is a small price to pay after we have watched 210,000 cubic meters removed every year.

We will continue to retain counsel and continue to keep up the PR campaign to (hopefully) avoid any future problems.

Next project: clean up the beach!


Also, for those of you who have not yet seen it, two groups were noted in the local newspapers as backing our cause: the hotel association and the ecological society. Links to the articles are attached.

http://www.listindiario.com.do/app/article.aspx?id=84302

http://www.elcaribecdn.com/articulo...d=4C66591767334FB79B56F4A8DEFADBF5&Seccion=63

Mark Yellen
 
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headnerd

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Dec 28, 2006
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Oh... and one more thing

Oh, and one more thing:

To everyone who has been sending me messages asking if it is true that I sat down in the middle of the road and refused to let the convoy of sand trucks pass... yes, it is true. I told them that if they want to take the sand out of Las Canas, they will have to roll over me first. Luckily, the air force arrived before things got out of control and sent all of the trucks back to the beach to dump out their sand.

Many people have told me that was a crazy thing to do - I'm not sure if it was the dumbest or the best thing I have ever done, but, in the end I know that I set an example for all of the people living in shacks in Las Canas - they now know that they can do something... if you believe in something enough and are willing to take risks, you can do it.

-MHY
 
L

Lambada

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Mar 4, 2004
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www.ginniebedggood.com
Extremely well done! Thank you for the update & so glad you didn't get flattened...........:cheeky:
There is a comment about the Las Canas issue at the end of this article
El Nuevo Norte > Inicio

Jaime David was a busy man on Tuesday - he was also very firm about not having the cement factory in Luperon, & noted concerns about the proposed propane gas station in PP.
Puerto Plata Digital

SECRETARIO MEDIO AMBIENTE REITERA NEGACION PERMISO CEMENTERA

Jaime David dice es definitivo rechazo cementera : Periodico El Faro - La Luz que Guia la Verdad

And another piece on Las Canas:
Denuncian sacan arena playa Gaspar Hern?ndez - ElNacional.com.do
 
M

Markf128

Guest
I did not know that!!!

headnerd said:
Oh, and one more thing:

To everyone who has been sending me messages asking if it is true that I sat down in the middle of the road and refused to let the convoy of sand trucks pass... yes, it is true. I told them that if they want to take the sand out of Las Canas, they will have to roll over me first. Luckily, the air force arrived before things got out of control and sent all of the trucks back to the beach to dump out their sand.

Many people have told me that was a crazy thing to do - I'm not sure if it was the dumbest or the best thing I have ever done, but, in the end I know that I set an example for all of the people living in shacks in Las Canas - they now know that they can do something... if you believe in something enough and are willing to take risks, you can do it.

-MHY
Click to expand...
Wow,

You did that? I cannot believe it. Well, I guess it take a gentleman to stand up for what he believes is right. I don't know about the rest, but you have my support 100% and just let me know how I can be of any assistance even though the issue seems to be under control for now.

Regards,

Mark
 
A

aross

New member
Nov 15, 2007
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headnerd said:
.
The conditions are:

No more than 500 truckloads may be removed.
The work must be completed before February 1st ? if fewer than 500 are removed, the additional truckloads will be forfeited.
Trucks must be smaller than 10 cubic meters ? no more jumbo dump trucks.
Work may not begin before 8am and must finish prior to 5pm. No work on Sunday.
No deep holes will be allowed.
All sand must be removed by hand. No heavy machinery may be used to dig the beach.
A clear boundary has been defined as to where the trucks and diggers may go.
The entire operation will be monitored and accounted for by the Puerto Plata office of the Medioambiente.
The deacon of the church in Las Canas will also monitor the operation.
After the 500 truckloads, there will be no more removal of sand from Las Canas beach by anyone.


If they continue at a pace of 40 truckloads per day, this should all be over in about 2 weeks. Another 5,000 cubic meters of sand is a small price to pay after we have watched 210,000 cubic meters removed every year.
Click to expand...

Going East through Cabarete all this week (especially busy today), there have been a lot of very large dump trucks with Caleche (sorry for the spelling if it is wrong) Also all week I have seen a lot of trucks carrying sand heading west through Cabarete. Some are small dump trucks but many of them are very large dump trucks and I cannot tell if they are the Caliche trucks returning with a payload as opposed to being empty.
 
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Markf128

Guest
This is a mess. I wonder if something is going to be done on this regard. I hope so.
 
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