Puerto Rico Will Create Task Force to Improve Wetlands

According to the settlement, the Puerto Rico Land Authority will pay a $25,000 penalty and set up a $100,000 interest-bearing account, which will be used to establish a wetlands management program.

“This far-reaching settlement will provide the necessary financial resources and political authority to create a Commonwealth-wide approach aimed at protecting thousands of acres of government owned wetlands and other environmentally-sensitive lands,” said EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg from his office in New York.

The settlement resolves a September 2007 complaint issued by the EPA alleging the Puerto Rico Land Authority had violated the Clean Water Act by allowing wetlands to be filled without the appropriate permits.

According to the federal agency's complaint, the Puerto Rico Land Authority allowed 1.8 acres of wetlands in the Canóvanas area of northeastern Puerto Rico to be developed for housing structures and dirt roads.

To satisfy the terms of the settlement, Puerto Rican Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá will establish a task force of Commonwealth government agencies that will identify, inventory, monitor and protect wetlands and other environmentally-sensitive lands owned by the Commonwealth.

This will be a supplemental environmental project, which is an environmentally beneficial project that an entity agrees to perform in settlement of an enforcement action.

The settlement also requires that Puerto Rico place a conservation easement on at least 1,000 acres of land it owns to protect it from industrial and high-impact agricultural development.

Additionally, the Puerto Rico Land Authority will create an environmental outreach campaign, adopt a wetlands protection plan for its property and install physical barriers at certain wetlands.

Wetlands filter chemical contaminants from water and land and help control floods. Wetlands also nurture and sustain a vast array of bird, plant, aquatic and animal life. Damaging or eliminating wetlands can be devastating to the coastal ecosystem.

The EPA reminds anyone planning construction activities in wetlands or streams to contact the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers well in advance to obtain a permit.

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