US embassy cable - 04SANTODOMINGO2607

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 SANTO DOMINGO 002607 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: BEXP, SENV, DR, ETRD, EWWT, EIND 
SUBJECT: ROCK ASH SHIPMENTS FROM PUERTO RICO TO DOMINICAN 
REPUBLIC STIR PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTROVERSY FOR U.S. FIRM 
 
 
 1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: A controversy over rock ash shipments 
from a Puerto Rico power plant owned by U.S.-based energy 
company AES has become a topic of local comment.  The 
Dominican Environment Secretariat confirms that the local 
firm that imported the product for construction in the north 
obtained all required permits and the material is an 
environmentally safe, commercial product.  The press has 
featured assertions from the political opposition and others 
that the product is toxic waste -- an erroneous result leaked 
by the technical lab of a local university. End summary. 
 
2.  (U)  A controversy over shipments of rock ash from a 
Puerto Rico power plant has become a topic of local comment. 
Rock ash is a coal combustion product (CCP) or by-product 
from burning coal in coal-fired power plants, such as the AES 
power plant in Puerto Rico.  CCPs are used for making cement, 
building roads, backfilling, and even building and consumer 
products. 
 
3.  (SBU) AES Puerto Rico Plant Manager Al Dyer, his 
associate Neil Watlington, and local AES President Julian 
Nebreda briefed Charge and emboffs April 21 on the rock ash 
shipments.  The company representatives said that AES Puerto 
Rico had contracted Florida-based Silverspot Corporation to 
remove the rock ash.  Silverspot, in turn, established a 
Dominican company to further process the rock ash and 
distribute it to commercial end-users in the Dominican 
Republic or the United States.  The company had distributed 
rock ash to the Port of Manzanillo for parking lot 
construction and to the Port of Samana.  Both are located on 
the north coast of the country.  Silverspot, AES and the 
Secretariat of Environment have confirmed to emboffs that 
 
SIPDIS 
Silverspot obtained the necessary permits. 
 
4.  (SBU) Charge told the AES representatives that the 
embassy stood ready to assist in every way possible, as it 
has with energy payment issues, but advised that the company 
needed to consider carefully the public relations aspect of 
the rock ash shipments and the potential impact of negative 
press on the company's Dominican energy interests (AES 
operates the regional power distribution company EDESTE and 
owns a generating plant). 
 
5.  (SBU) After local press began reporting in late March 
that rock ash from the United States was being "dumped" in 
the Dominican Republic, a local university tested the product 
and announced that it contained unsafe levels of heavy metals 
and other toxins.  The press and internet sites associated 
the rock ash with birth defects and dead whales on Dominican 
beaches, and alleged that the United States had violated the 
United Nations Environment Programme's Basel Convention on 
the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous 
Wastes.Editorials included sensational captions, such as 
"Garbage Dump of the Caribbean."  The Dominican Senate 
considered a resolution calling for the re-export of the 
material to Puerto Rico. 
 
6.  (SBU) On April 15, Secretary of the Environment and 
Natural Resources, Frank Moya Pons, told Embassy officers 
that, while he awaits the results of a full investigation he 
commissioned from the Environmental Prosecutor, an EPA 
finding on the laboratory analysis of rock ash would add 
credibility to his agency's efforts to make an impartial, 
science-based decision.  He said he would also welcome 
embassy efforts to publicize EPA's findings.  Embassy has 
contacted EPA and will follow up with a formal request for 
assistance with sample analysis. 
 
7.  (SBU) On April 16, Econoff met with Sub Secretary of the 
Environment Rene Ledesma, who had issued the environmental 
permits to import the substance.  Ledesma acknowledged the 
public relations brouhaha but presented a notebook of 
documents defending his decision.  His findings appeared to 
be supported by information from the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, indicating that the Dominican university 
study had used flawed methodology and that the product was 
environmentally friendly. Ledesma commented that the 
university had suspended the employee who had "leaked" the 
flawed study. 
 
8.  (SBU) Ledesma said that a PRD senator from Samana who was 
from a faction of the party opposed to Mejia had pursued the 
issue for political reasons.  Ledesma also speculated that 
local clinker suppliers were objecting to the importation of 
rock ashfor protectionist reasons . 
 
7.  (SBU) Econoff spoke with a leading whale expert and 
environmentalist residing in Samana, raising the issue of a 
dead whale recently washed ashore on the north coast.  She 
said that the studies she had seen on the rock ash showed 
safe levels of metals and other substances and that from her 
observations, there was no adverse environmental impact from 
the shipments.  She said that coastal contamination could not 
have been the cause of the whale's death, since it was a 
"deep-water whale," not one of the humpbacks that migrates 
each year to shallow Dominican waters. 
 
8.  (SBU) Silverspot owner Roger Fina told Embassy's 
Commercial Counselor April 20 that he was in the Dominican 
Republic in response to a subpoena and that he wanted to 
resolve the misunderstandings over the rock ash shipments. 
He provided much of the same information concerning the 
studies and indicated he would be meeting with GODR 
officials. 
 
9.  (SBU) In response to a question from university students 
on April 20 President Mejia commented that the 
environmentalists complaining about the shipments had 
exaggerated and were "blatherers who had an opinion on 
everything."  However, he added that rock ash was not "such a 
good thing" and that his Environmental Secretariat should not 
have permitted it to enter the country.  If it provided 
toxic, it should be immediately sent back to Puerto Rico. 
 
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COMMENT 
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10. (SBU) This public relations scandal has elements of 
politics, commercial protectionism, and happy scandal 
mongering.  Tere has been so much negative press that AES and 
Silverspot have little chance of fully informing and changing 
public opinion, even with scientific evidence.  The GODR may 
well let matters lie, depending on how this continues to play 
out in the media. The firms involved have stopped shipments 
for now and intend to counter the toxicity issues with 
independent studies followed by a public message.  AES 
previously received negative publicity over rock ash 
shipments, but the similar incident last year faded from the 
press after a couple of days.  The more immediate problems of 
AES  concern payments due from the GODR and other 
participants in the energy sector. 
 
 
 
 
HERTELL