Most of today?s press carry front-page stories on the lab report from the Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) that describes the rock-ash deposited in Manzanillo and Samana as a toxic contaminant. Hoy says that specialists from the Dominican Academy of Science and the state university proved that the substance contains high levels of arsenic, cadmium, beryllium and vanadium. These heavy metals are classified as toxic by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As reported in Hoy, El Caribe and the Diario Libre, the rock-ash must be removed. The Senate?s special commission that investigated the case reported that the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources incurred a serious violation of its own laws pertaining to the handling of solid wastes. The ministry was ordered to oversee the return of the waste materiel, and at the same time Minister Frank Moya Pons was invited to appear before the commission.
The commission?s report also states that besides the toxicity of the solid waste matter, the high alkaline content makes the rock-ash highly irritant to the skin and eyes. While not all of the numbers were published, the level of vanadium was reported to be 80.3ppm ? far beyond acceptable levels, according to the Academy of Science and the UASD.