PREPA adapts Va Verde to reduce danger

July 30, 2011 by The Daily Sun staff

Massol says pipeline still could explode

BY MARIA MIRANDA Of The Daily Sun Staff mmiranda@prdailysun.net

The Va Verde natural gas pipeline project will undergo 40 changes to make it safer and more environmentally friendly, Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority Director Miguel Cordero announced Friday. We will spare no resources so Va Verde will meet all security parameters and environmental protection measures, Cordero said, adding that the changes resulted from recommendations by experts hired by PREPA and the community affected by the pipeline route. The adaptations do not convince engineer Arturo Massol, a staunch opponent of the pipeline and spokesman for Casa del Pueblo (House of the People), in Adjuntas. The new considerations, he said, aim at avoiding damage to historical and archeological sites near the pipeline route. Some towns to benefit from the new measures are Peuelas, Adjuntas, Utuado, Arecibo, Manat, Vega Baja, Dorado, Toa Baja and Catao, he said. Cordero noted that in the Tallaboa sector of the southern town of Peuelas, alignment adjustments will be made to avoid damage to marine life. In addition, several adjustments have been made in Peuelas to minimize the impact on the habitat of the Puerto Rican nightjar and on plants classified as endangered species. The new routing will also try to avoid damaging the archeological site on the shore of the Tallaboa River, to move the project away from the Monte Santo community and to avoid creating puddles that serve as breeding grounds for the concho frog (a large Puerto Rican toad). Meanwhile, in the southern mountain town of Adjuntas, several adjustments have also been made to avoid doing harm to a historical conservation property known as the Forman Farm. In Arecibo, modifications allowed the pipeline to be built further from a cave, and in the Cambalache sector changes were made to reduce damage to the damp coastal areas. The same situation will occur in the northern coastal town of Manat, Cordero said. In an attempt to avoid destroying endangered plants, drains and the top of mogotes (geomorphologic structures in the Caribbean) while also avoiding an illegal garbage dump in the area. In Toa Baja we made additional adjustments to the pipeline route to avoid environmental damage to coastal mangroves in Punta Salinas, and in Catao we made modifications to avoid hurting damp areas," said Cordero. "In Utuado, we changed elements in the route to keep from hurting the Salto Arriba archeological site, near the University of Puerto Rico campus and to avoid an unstable zone on Highway 10. Other routes in the northern coastal towns of Vega Baja, Dorado and Toa Baja were altered to avoid damage to archeological sites. Massol said most of the announced changes are not possible, and that many adaptations are fabrications. This confirms that PREPA is acting out of desperation," Massol told the Daily Sun in a telephone interview. "Theyre also lying when they say the pipeline will run at a distance of 150 feet from the homes when its really some 75 feet on each side of the pipeline. How can they incorporate security alterations when they havent made a risk control analysis? Realignment that could prevent risks from earthquakes and flooding is impossible. In 2005 in New Orleans, 94 percent of property damage was caused by faults in the systems that transmit natural gas in addition to the fires by flooding. The northern part of the island is the most flood prone," Massol said. "They need to take the project away from the Army Corps of Engineers and discontinue the misuse of public funds to build a dangerous gas pipeline destined to failure.