12/30/22, 1:58 PM Gmail - Re: AAA EMERGENCY Culebra

CORALations Culebra <coralations@gmail.com>

Re: AAA EMERGENCY Culebra

1 message

CORALations Culebra <coralations@gmail.com> Fri, Dec 30, 2022 at 1:35 PM

To: "Ortiz, Hector" <Ortiz.Hector@epa.gov>, "Guerrero, Carmen" <guerrero.carmen@epa.gov>, Milton Diaz Diaz
<Milton.DIAZ@acueductospr.com>, Anaís Rodríguez <anais.rodriguez@drna.pr.gov>, "Hon. Edilberto Romero"
<alcaldeculebra2021@gmail.com>, "Lcda. Margaret Ramírez-Báez" <margaretramirezb@gmail.com>, Andy Strelcheck
<andy.strelcheck@noaa.gov>, Edwin Muniz <edwin_muniz@fws.gov>, Silmarie Padron <Silmarie_Padron@fws.gov>, Felix
Lopez <felix_lopez@fws.gov>, Kerry Kehoe - NOAA Federal <kerry.kehoe@noaa.gov>, SecretariaJP
<secretariajp@jp.pr.gov>, Rose Ortiz <Ortiz_r@jp.pr.gov>
Cc: Ruperto Chaparro <ruperto.chaparro@upr.edu>, "Geliga, Jaime" <Geliga.Jaime@epa.gov>, Jose Sepulveda Sanchez
<Jose.SEPULVEDA@acueductospr.com>, Milton Diaz Diaz <Milton.DIAZ@acueductospr.com>,
"culebra.reserva.natural@gmail.com" <culebra.reserva.natural@gmail.com>, Nicolás Gómez <nicolas.x.gomez@gmail.com>,
"alfredo.a.montanez@gmail.com" <alfredo.a.montanez@gmail.com>, Digna Feliciano <dfeli42@yahoo.com>, Edwin Alexis
Hernandez <edwin.hernandezdelgado@gmail.com>, aelugo1234 <aelugo1234@gmail.com>, Winnie Marquez
<winniemarquez@gmail.com>, Abimarie Otaño Cruz <abimarie.otano@gmail.com>, Ricardo Colón-Rivera
<ricardojcolon@gmail.com>, Dulce Maria del Rio-Pineda <dulceculebra@gmail.com>, Digna feliciano
<dignafeliciano42@gmail.com>, Ricardo Lugo <ricardo.juan.lugo@gmail.com>, Lourdes Feliciano
<culebramarine2@gmail.com>

Saludos Sr. Diaz, Sr. Ortiz, Hon. Edilberto Romero and Lcda. Ramirez-Báez: 

First, this is to wish you all Peace, Health, and Happiness this Holiday Season!

Unfortunately, this email is also to submit photos taken and posted on Facebook at around 3:30am this morning of a high-
velocity street spill.  
This was one of the street sites originally marked on the map submitted to EPA with the first notice of the emergency.
PRASA has already responded once, as you can see from the road work.  
The google image drops a pin on the exact location.
The neighbor is missing work today to monitor this leak to protect her house located downland.  

Also, this is to remind EPA that we still need a PRASA phone number that can be shared publicly in order for residents to
report and track these urgent issues.  

As we are all aware, as Culebra's shallow coastal waters warm, micro-organisms pathogenic to people as well as marine
life proliferate, and dramatic and adverse modification to coastal critical habitat resources is already evident. 

Thank YOU for your immediate response to this concern. 

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Chronic Issues on Culebra and Regulatory Oversight Reminders: 

2008 - coastal waters of Culebra were designated critical habitat for two species of acroporid corals (Acropora palmata
and Acroproa cervicornis), 
1997-  coastal waters of Culebra were designated critical habitat for green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) 
1992 - specific seagrass beds of Culebra were designated Resource Category 1 Critical Habitat and considered
irreparable / non-mitigatable if destroyed. 
1976 - all of Culebra with exception to lands managed by USFWS were designated as coastal zone as defined by those
areas where island-based impacts pose threats to coastal waters. (1976 Culebra Segment of the Puerto Rico Segment of
the US Coastal Zone Management Plan,  with Puerto Rico's official plan designated in 1978, and authorizing significant
federal contributions over the years to the Commonwealth.) 

1975 - Ley 66, 1975 (as amended).  Section 2. — Public Policy Legislative Intent. (21 L.P.R.A. § 890a).  "It is declared that the
public policy of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is to preserve and maintain the ecological integrity of Culebra, including its keys,
islets and surrounding waters and to insure that the continuous development of Culebra shall protect and conserve, to the maximum,
its extraordinary natural environment which is part of Puerto Rico's patrimony.   To this end, it is advisable to have an entity that shall
be in charge of the conservation and integral development of Culebra by all the adequate means, including, but without being limited
to, the establishment of administration plans, rules, and regulations, the possession and management of public lands, infrastructures

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and structures suitable to the establishment and execution of programs which tend to gain the best knowledge, preservation and sound
use of the natural resources of Culebra."   NOTE: subsequent amendments have deflected any reference to local authority (ACDEC) to
OGPe and Puerto Law 161, 2009 (as amended) without consideration as to if this constitutes a formal amendment to the 1976
Culebra Segment of the Coastal Zone Management Plan. 

1972 - The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act enacted by section 901(a) of

the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub.L. 91–452 , 84 Stat. 922 , enacted October 15, 1970) and is
codified at 18 U.S.C. ch. 96  as 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961 –1968 .

1972 - The Coastal Zone Enhancement Program Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 As amended through Pub. L.
No. 109-58, the Energy Policy Act of 2005

1972- US Clean Water Act (as amended). 40 C.F.R. Part 130 establishes policies and program requirements for water
quality planning, management and implementation under sections 106, 205(j), non-construction management 205(g),
208, 303 and 305 of the CWA.   

Regarding Clean Water Act, The Coastal Zone Management Act and the Environmental Justice municipal island
community of Puerto Rico: 

Citizens should not have to sue the agencies to insure waters remain swimmable-fishable, and yet please
see CORALations vs. EPA.   

Since this case, and despite the multiple federal critical habitat designations for Culebra waters over the past
decades, the DRNA/EQB and EPA have failed to implement stricter water standards in response to the federal
critical habitat water designations.  To date there is no meaningful coastal water quality monitoring programs for
the many shores now impacted of this isolated municipal island.   

Under the CWA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program, EPA regulates discharges of
pollutants from municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, sewer collection systems, and stormwater
discharges from municipalities.     

EPA must remain vigilant to ensure pre-treatment for pollutants in wastewater in order to protect Culebra's fragile,
sanitary sewer system and wastewater treatment plants from chronic clogs.  This results in spills that present
public health risks as well as the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated pollutants into local waterways. 
Sea Grant University College Program in Mayagüez recently reiterated its commitment to the development of
effective educational posters for Culebra that can hopefully reduce impacts that cause clogs, and the resulting
spillovers (Ruperto Chaparro copied above.)     

These problems are obviously complicated by what we observe has been almost a complete lack of meaningful
agency oversight and enforcement.

Illegal land use management practices, some associated with illegal and dense urbanizations reported in the
past,  continue to move in egregious violation of zoning and more aggressively during the 2022 holiday season on
Culebra.  This is because the planning and permitting agencies in Puerto Rico now legalize projects once
constructed, irrespective of their sustainability which is clearly fueling egregious unsustainable development and
land use practices. This has been well documented by organizations for the respective records island-wide and at
this point could constitute RICO offenses. 

Fast-track categorical exclusions are still illegally being issued today for Culebra and for projects that are moving
in egregious violation of zoning on the permit summeries referenced.  (The link to one such egregious example
that was found investigating a 2acre land deforestation, earthworks and major hillside excavations.   This chronic
abuse of categorical exclusion was documented to Lcdo. Kerry Kehoe, in association with the last Coastal Zone
Management Plan Act public hearings held almost a decade ago (2015) in Puerto Rico.  Interagency meetings held
in 2021 resulted in agreements to prevent this future abuse as well. 

The case referenced above involves a 9-lot segregation that we are told apparently fraudulently implicates
innocent people as the landholders on the permits, and also as was found on the Puerto Rico CRIM registry. 
Fraud is a criminal offense, and again in these cases may constitute RICO violations. 

As you know stormwater runoff occurs when debris, chemicals, soils, PAH's and PFA's, pesticides and other
pollutants from construction and urban runoff wash into critical habitat waters either directly or via storm drains.
Today's stormwater and sewer issues, pose a cumulative and significant threat to public health, and Culebra
residents have limited access to health care.   This is likely contributing significantly to the adverse modification of
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coastal waters and resources federally listed as critical habitat.  Urban runoff has also been linked in many
publications as a co-factor to fatal fibropapillomatosis in listed sea turtles. 

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program establishes an effluent permit system for a
point source (e.g., pipe, ditch, sewer) discharge of pollutants into waters of the U.S.   As you know, the NPDES
permit system requires those permitted to maintain records and report on the amount and nature of discharged
effluent waste components. This would be difficult to even assess without the funding for qualified and committed
people on the ground and should not be the burden of this environmental justice community. 

As you know the stormwater program is a part of the NPDES program and is designed to reduce or eliminate the
discharge of contaminated stormwater into waters of the U.S. This requires the following stormwater discharges
to be covered by an NPDES permit,  including discharges that EPA or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
determines contribute to a violation of a water quality standards or which is a significant contributor of pollutants
to waters of the United States.

The record shows that not one formal public hearing has ever been held on the isolated, environmental justice (still
littered with hazardous UXO), municipal island regarding a water quality certification or federal permitting for
Culebra's main wastewater treatment plant, sewer system, or the other two WWTPs now found on the NPDES
permit maps today.  Never has any of these Culebra permits been posted for federal coastal zone consistency by
the Planning Board of Puerto Rico. We ask that this is rectified in the next permit renewal, especially in light of the
latest crisis.  

On June 10, 2021 we very much appreciated Ms. Guerrero coordinating inter-agency meetings to work towards
addressing these serious, cumulative impact issues today in a more organized approach with those agencies that
also bear non-discretional jurisdictional authority, however, this is to emphasize, the problems with the trash,
with the septic system and the problems associated with illegal and unsustainable urbanizations, appear to
accelerate on Culebra, and CORALations is not alone in attributing this to a lack of meaningful regulatory
oversight on the part of local and federal agencies today.  

We believe that EPA should consider assigning an enforcement officer to formally document these violations on the
ground for EPA and other federal agencies before all the listed resources critical to visitors and fishermen are
forever destroyed.       It is more cost-effective to enforce the laws and protect these habitats than to place the
burden of restoration on the backs of low-income community.  These  chronic impacts will make living mangrove
and coral restoration impossible. 

A recent FOIA has revealed that US Army Corps has not taken enforcement action on issues impacting their
shared jurisdictional authority under the Clean Water Act such as the illegal fill of the Ensenada Honda Harbor and
illegal pier constructions since 2006.  As of last year, Illegal pier constructions in critical habitat waters have
increased 17% since Maria and continue today, impacting mangroves and erecting 100+ foot long piers,  even by
contractors who typically apply for NPDES stormwater discharge plans and permits (i.e. MFS Construction of
Puerto Rico.) 
Thank you very much, 

Mary Ann Lucking

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Photo taken and posted at approximately 3:30am of high velocity leak. 

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Location of the leak: 

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ik=bf7a11e4c1&view=pt&search=all&permthid=thread-f%3A1751937039984206624%7Cmsg-a%3Ar-133628349526421333&si… 4/7
12/30/22, 1:58 PM Gmail - Re: AAA EMERGENCY Culebra

On Wed, Dec 21, 2022 at 4:59 PM Ortiz, Hector <Ortiz.Hector@epa.gov> wrote:

I’m checking with PRASA which telephone number is adequate to report the citizen claims and to find any information of
your claims. I let you know when we receive the information.

Héctor D. Ortiz

Environmental Engineer

Telephone (787) 977-5883

Municipal Water Program Branch

USEPA - Caribbean Environmental Protection Division

City View Plaza II

48 Carr. 165 Ste 7000

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Guaynabo, PR 00968-8073

From: CORALations Culebra <coralations@gmail.com>

Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2022 1:45 PM
To: Ortiz, Hector <Ortiz.Hector@epa.gov>
Cc: Ruperto Chaparro <ruperto.chaparro@upr.edu>; Geliga, Jaime <Geliga.Jaime@epa.gov>; Jose Sepulveda
Sanchez <Jose.SEPULVEDA@acueductospr.com>; Milton Diaz Diaz <Milton.DIAZ@acueductospr.com>; Guerrero,
Carmen <guerrero.carmen@epa.gov>; Lourdes Feliciano <culebramarine@yahoo.com>;
culebra.reserva.natural@gmail.com; Nicolás Gómez <nicolas.x.gomez@gmail.com>; alfredo.a.montanez@gmail.com;
Digna Feliciano <dfeli42@yahoo.com>; Edwin Alexis Hernandez <edwin.hernandezdelgado@gmail.com>; aelugo1234
<aelugo1234@gmail.com>; Winnie Marquez <winniemarquez@gmail.com>; Abimarie Otaño Cruz
<abimarie.otano@gmail.com>; Ricardo Colón-Rivera <ricardojcolon@gmail.com>; Dulce Maria del Rio-Pineda
<dulceculebra@gmail.com>; Digna feliciano <dignafeliciano42@gmail.com>; Ricardo Lugo
<ricardo.juan.lugo@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: AAA EMERGENCY Culebra

Saludos Sr Ortiz:

It would be great if PRASA could provide a number that Islanders can call during this emergency that assigns a number
so complaints can be tracked and resolutions followed up. 

Today three PRASA employees from

offisland were seen removing a 15 ft section of sewer tube using a crane on their truck from a large hole next to the
entrance ofthe airport. 

Waste water was being pumped out of the hole down the street into wetlands and sea.   I would guess 30gpm's-  I
chose not to take a photo as there was no way to do this without the workers in it- 

Hopefully that's a limited amount of black water, but it looked like a lot. 

The fire truck and bomberos were washing streets today as well, in front of the ild school- maybe because the septic
was pooling in town streets? not sure. Anyway anything on the roads ends up in coastal waters as well.  

EPA needs to take a look at this issue on the ground.   

Thank you- 

--
Mary Ann Lucking 
Director 
CORALations 
P.O. Box 750 
Culebra, PR 00775 
www.coralations.org   
787.556.6234     
email:  maryann@coralations.org, coralations@gmail.com
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Trabajando con comunidades del Caribe para proteger y restaurar
sus arrecifes de coral.

<<><<<>>><>> 

Working with Caribbean communities to protect and restore their coral reefs.

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