October 5, 2012 2:30 pm
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. government has
a new fight in Vieques, the Puerto Rican island that was used as a Navy bombing
range for decades.
An extensive cleanup of the eastern portion of
Vieques is years from being finished, but is years from being finished, but the
government says it is ready to declare work completed on a nearly 400-acre site
on the western side that was used to store and detonate expired munitions.
The former storage site was turned over to the
U.S. Interior Department and declared a nature reserve. Under a proposal
favored by the Navy, the cleanup of the area would be deemed complete even
though about 200 acres has not been cleared of munitions debris, some
potentially still live. That has sparked outrage among activists and officials
in Vieques and the main island of Puerto Rico who favor a complete removal of
all debris. And it has brought back some of the angry rhetoric that helped
force an end to Vieques’ use as a bombing range in 2003.
“It’s not a cleanup. It is an affront to Puerto
Ricans that those responsible for the explosives would refuse to remove them,”
Maria de Lourdes Santiago, a vice president of the Puerto Rico Independence
Party and a candidate for the U.S. territory’s Senate, said Thursday. Navy
officials say it would hurt the nature reserve by tearing up the dense
vegetation to clear the remainder of the debris.
Opponents suspect the plan may have more to do
with the cost of cleaning up all the debris, estimated at $50 million.
Jorge Fernandez Porto, director of the
territorial Senate’s natural resources commission and a member of a citizen
advisory board that monitors the Navy cleanup of Vieques, said he fears a
partial removal of debris will set a precedent for other parts of the island.
“You found this clean, you can’t just give it
back full of bombs,” Fernandez said. “I’m sorry if it’s costly. You should have
thought about that before. Now you want to do the cheap version and leave the
bombs there.”
A public comment period on the proposal ends
Friday, at which point it will be under review by the Environmental Protection
Agency. Before the area became a nature reserve, the military would dig open
pits and burn expired 20-milimeter rounds, and occasionally unexploded rounds
were scattered in the surrounding brush.
Under the plan favored by the Navy, the area
that has not been cleared of munitions debris would be enclosed by a
barbed-wire fence to prevent people from scavenging for potentially explosive
scrap metal and souvenirs, said Kevin Cloe, a manager of the cleanup project.
Other parts of the reserve would be open to the
public, but the entire area has long been designated as a natural reserve and
the government never intended for the public to have full access, Cloe said.
Trying to clear the entire area would do
extensive damage to site, he said.
“It’s a balancing act. There are no silver
bullets. It would be great if we could turn over the island, shake out all the
bad things … but this is a labor intensive, very destructive operation,” he
said.
Vieques, which is ringed by clear blue waters
and pristine beaches that have made it a popular tourist destination in recent
years, was used as a bombing range from the 1940s until the government agreed
to give it up in 2003 after years of angry protests.
The U.S. has removed more than 16.5 million
pounds of munitions, but the cleanup of the old bombing range on the island’s
eastern portion is expected to run through at least 2025. The full cleanup of
Vieques, one of the most extensive rehabilitation efforts ever undertaken by
the Navy, is budgeted at around $350 million.
Isa 33:1- Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou
[wast] not spoiled; and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously
with thee! when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; [and] when
thou shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously
with thee.
Isa 42:22- But this [is] a people robbed and
spoiled; [they are] all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison
houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith,
Restore.
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