[CPEO-MEF] Governor to include Vieques in priority list for cleanup

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Puerto Rico
Governor to include Vieques in priority list for cleanup
Thursday, May 1st, 2003.
By Proviana Colon Diaz of WOW News

VIEQUES – The Commonwealth will use its one-time silver bullet option,
available by the CERCLA federal legislation, to include Vieques in the
National Priority List for environmental clean-up purposes, Gov. Sila
Calderon said Wednesday.

Under the CERCLA federal legislation, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency establishes what is known as a National Priority List to identify
places with great contamination and risks. There are two ways of getting
on that list. One is entering the Dangerous Classification System, which
takes a long and enduring process prior to determining whether the site
is worthy of such classification. The other is by using the one-time,
silver bullet option provided to the states and Puerto Rico. Calderon
chose the latter.

“The Commonwealth government has never exercised that one-time silver
bullet. . .I am convinced that if any site in Puerto Rico merits such
protection, it is Vieques. Its people have sacrificed for decades. They
can wait no longer,” Calderon said.

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