The efforts of the Ministry of Environment, now under Max Puig, to reign in the excesses of powerful gravel extraction companies from Dominican rivers are making headlines. El Caribe reports that Deputy Minister Ernesto Reyna Alcantara said that the institution is reviewing permits that were issued for this activity during the previous government. As reported, the deputy minister yesterday notified these companies that Decree 145-03 prohibits the extraction of construction material in the evening. News coverage has focused on how the gravel trucks notoriously overstep their boundaries by operating well into the night. Last Friday, the environmental police seized 32 trucks that were violating the measure by transporting the construction material at dawn, as reported in Diario Libre. Reyna said the ministry would also prosecute the hardware stores that sell gravel that has been illegally extracted from the rivers. The ministry is going after the companies that are violating their permits.
Nevertheless, Colonel Valerio Garcia Reyes said that with only 267 men in the environmental police force, they are limited in their efforts to enforce environmental regulations. Yesterday, a major traffic jam occurred on the San Cristobal highway, when environmental police detained the incoming loaded trucks to review their permits.