[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
midable protest movement. Citizen opposition was based primarily on the im-
pact mining would have on soil, agriculture, water quality, human health, flora
and fauna, and aesthetic considerations (García 1972).
In the late 1990s, the surface over two copper deposits was legally de-
clared The People s Forest, and mining was expressly prohibited there. The
Puerto Rican government bought the land and established a joint management
arrangement between the Commonwealth and municipal governments. Additional
efforts have been made more recently to add significant tracts of land to the
original forest, to create a continuous system of protected areas in the Cordil-
lera Central.
During the late 1950s, mining companies also undertook preliminary ex-
ploration of nickel, cobalt, and iron deposits in western Puerto Rico. Expansion
of the exploration and possible exploitation of these mineral resources was discussed
80 N. García-Martínez, T. García-Ramos, and A. Rivera-Rivera
in the 1970s. Opposition to extensive surface mining arose, based on economic,
political, and environmental grounds, and this mining proposal was shelved in
the early 1980s (García 1984a).
A third attempt to exploit nonrenewable resources began in 1975. Infor-
mation surfaced in the media that Mobil and Exxon were interested in explor-
ing significant seabed and land areas in northern Puerto Rico for the possible
presence of natural gas and oil. This interest had been piqued by site investiga-
tions undertaken in conjunction with plans for constructing nuclear power plants
on the island. Geophysical studies had revealed the presence of potential hy-
drocarbon deposits. Puerto Rican public opinion crystallized around the demand
that the island government, not the corporations, finish the exploration and then
negotiate the exploitation of hydrocarbon deposits, if any expansion of the dry
well resulted. Lingering suspicions remain as to the extent of Puerto Rico s natu-
ral gas and oil deposits.
Pharmaceutical Corporations
In the 1960s and the 1970s the Puerto Rican government made a signifi-
cant effort to attract pharmaceutical companies to the island. During the 1960s,
this investment took place mostly in end production of medicines, specifically
preparation of tablets, emulsions, and solutions, and in packaging. By the end
of the 1960s, Puerto Rican plants had begun to synthesize medicines through
chemical and biochemical processes. This sector of the drug industry expanded
dramatically for almost three decades, and Puerto Rico became one of the most
important centers of pharmaceutical production in the world.
Section 936 of the Internal Revenue Code favored expansion of the phar-
maceutical sector. This regulation allowed parent companies to repatriate virtu-
ally tax-exempt profits from subsidiaries in Puerto Rico to the United States.
Their only requirement was to pay a small tollgate tax on profits to the Puerto
Rican government. The transfer of profits from parent companies to Puerto Rican
subsidiaries through raw materials purchases, product prices, patent controls, and
other creative accounting schemes became widespread, until the U.S. Congress
decided to eliminate Section 936 over a ten-year period, starting in 1996. The
pharmaceutical and chemical companies were notorious for inadequate disposal
of hazardous waste during the late 1960s and mid-1970s. Disposal took place
in inappropriately constructed lagoons, in sinkholes, in channels and rivers, and
in domestic waste landfills with no adequate safeguards.
Electric machinery parts companies were also a source of soil and water
pollution during this period. During the 1970s and early 1980s, solvents and
heavy metals were found in landfills, wells, and surface water in northern, south-
ern, and southeastern Puerto Rico. The sources of these pollutants were traced
to the above-mentioned industries, as well as to thermometer producers, oil re-
fineries, and petrochemical plants (Torres-González and Wolansky 1984;
Guzmán-Ríos and Quiñones-Márquez 1985).1
Puerto Rico: Economic and Environmental Overview 81
Vocal opposition from community groups arose at that time to the loca-
tion of these industries and to the permitting process that allowed them to dis-
charge waste into rivers, landfills, and public treatment plants. Demands to clean
up wells, landfills, and soil and to protect the health of those affected were com-
mon. Protests around the ineffective operation of domestic waste landfills were
also the order of the day. At least ten sites where wastes were improperly dis-
posed of were eventually declared Superfund sites and placed under EPA
jurisdiction.
Puerto Rico s growing electricity needs have been an area of great con-
tention. Between 1968 and 1976, there were numerous demonstrations in Puerto
Rico protesting the proposed construction of nuclear-powered electric generat-
ing plants. In 1977, nuclear power was eliminated as an option for electricity
generation. Between 1979 and 1997, opposition arose to proposed construction
of three coal-fired electric generating plants. Only one of these projects (AES)
reached completion a plant built in southern Puerto Rico. After three and a
half decades of searching for strategies and solutions to meet energy needs, the
government has supported construction of natural gas and distilled fuel oil plants.
This has meant a significant reduction in consumption of power generated by
thermoelectric plants that used residual fuel oil with high sulfur and asphaltene
content. This victory has come after years of protest, spearheaded by Cataño
residents, against the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and EPA.
Ultimately energy conservation improvements in the existing electricity gener-
ating system, along with use of renewable energy sources, must be part of the
solution for Puerto Rico s long-term electricity needs (García 1993).
Military Activities
For more than sixty years, a significant portion of Puerto Rico was used
by the U.S. armed forces for military base locations and operations. Poverty, pros-
titution, and pollution were the main products of this military occupation. In
the 1950s human life was made intolerable by drunken sailors abusive behav-
ior toward women and old men. Nowhere were military activities more destruc-
tive than on Culebra and Vieques islands, to the east of the main island. More
than a thousand acres in eastern Vieques were used to practice with napalm,
uranium-tipped bullets, and bombs of up to 2,000 pounds. Navy maneuvers de-
stroyed coral reefs, lagoons, flora and fauna; the roar of airplanes and bomb ex-
plosions made life miserable for residents. When the Navy left the bombing range
in Culebra in 1975, it simply increased bombing practice in Vieques. Cancer
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]