The minister of Environment and Natural Resources has ordered the companies Trans Dominicana de Desarollo and Multigestiones Valenza to immediately collect and remove the substance known as rock ash (or industrial ash) that was deposited illegally along the coastal areas of Arroyo Barril, Samana and Manzanillo, Monte Crist. According to the Listin Diario, this verdict was handed down in the form of a resolution signed by Minister Max Puig, who also ordered the two companies to pay 3,000 minimum wages in force at the time of the illegal deposits, for their violation of Law 64-00. The former undersecretary of the Ministry of Environment, Rene Ledesma, has also been fined the equivalent of 3,000 minimum wages in view of his responsibility at the time, in compliance with Article 171 of the above cited law, and in particular violation of Section 8 of Article 175.
The companies must also execute a plan to restore the affected areas, which must be approved and overseen by the ministry. In effecting this resolution, Minister Puig hopes to close this chapter of the rock ash scandal that was unleashed upon discovering that 50,000 tons of the substance was brought in from Puerto Rico and stored in Arroyo Barril and Samana earlier this year. An additional 30,000 tons were deposited in Manzanillo. The ministry also viewed the areas of Samana and Manzanillo as fragile, and said that no consideration was given to the marine biology by those who dumped the industrial residue.
Rock ash is a substance derived from electricity production and considered toxic, although various institutions, the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo among them, have declared the rock ash found in the DR not to be as harmful as was denounced.
The government ordered studies conducted in the areas where the material was deposited, as well as those places that have used rock ash as a landfill, in order to determine its effect on ground soil, water and drainage, as well as to the air and human health.