In \u00a0an interview with a local Puerto Rican media outlet, the president of the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) made a shocking admission about the landfill crisis in the U.S. territory. Weldin Ortiz Franco acknowledged that they have eight to 10 inspectors, who are not exclusively dedicated to landfill inspections and sometimes fail to inspect all the landfills on the island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe try to see them [in] quarterly fiscal years but there are many that we cannot do it,\u201d he told\u00a0The Spokesmanin Spanish. To have more employees, he said, \u201cwe could have more comprehensive work plans and a system of more frequent inspections.\u201d<\/p>\n
The EQB in Puerto Rico has local authority over the 27 active landfills on the island. They received that power in 1994 when they submitted a proposal detailing how they would follow federal rules and regulations when in charge of the landfills.<\/p>\n
However, a citizen\u2019s action group called\u00a0Puerto Rico Limpio (or Clean Puerto Rico), alleges that the local EQB has illegally changed some its original rules for landfills and didn\u2019t get approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to do so.<\/p>\n
The group also claims that 19 of the 27 landfills in Puerto Rico are non-compliant, and for years, the EPA has ignored these problems, despite several internal reports suggesting they should act.<\/p>\n
The relationship of the EPA and EQB is a unique and tricky one. Once the EPA has granted local authority to the EQB, they are technically no longer in charge of the landfills.<\/p>\n
\u201cEQB has primary responsibility for regulating solid waste landfills in the Commonwealth, and federal landfill criteria governing solid waste are not directly enforceable by EPA in Puerto Rico. Only EQB has permitting and solid waste enforcement authority over the landfills,\u201d said John Martin, a spokesman for the EPA, in a statement to InsideSources.<\/p>\n
However, the statement Martin provided was the same exact language the EPA used in itsSeptember 2016 Fact Sheet, titled \u201cEPA\u2019s Work To Address Puerto Rico\u2019s Landfills.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the EPA will step in and enforce federal laws if there are serious environmental and health risks under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Section 7003 Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Authority. They used that to send consent orders to nine open dumps \u2014 multi-family dumpsite of any size or content, which is illegal under RCRA \u2014 in Puerto Rico, according to aJune letter\u00a0from the EPA Region 2 Administrator Judith Enck on behalf of EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla.<\/p>\n