Please not going for the sympathy vote

Hi Anette
your right but the two are linked, whatever caused my problem is here in Costambar
pretty sure we will not find out what caused it but the more we look the more chance we have of finding out.

Don i dont fully understand your post but would like to talk to you about it

Sue

Thank you Anette for bringing this article to our attention.
I thought that maybe Raf Belliard could translate the article in English and send it to his email group, I'm sure they would appreciate reading this very positive report.
Hey that is a good picture of Jose Polanco! We should get the name of the Photographer :-)
Sorry Anette I don't know enough to answer your question. I'm not sure I even understand exactly what you are asking :-(

We started talking about Sue having some health problems and it ended up in an environment discussion…

Talking about environment I just read an article in the news paper Puerto Plata Habla. They are mainly talking about Mr. Jose Polanco and “El movimiento pro rescate de Puerto Plata”.
Apparently they have succeeded in their efforts to force the power plant to reduce the air pollution (this is what the article is about).
I post the link to that news paper page. If you cannot read Spanish, you might translate with Google.

http://www.puertoplatahabla.com/articles.php?art_id=4848&start=1

There is something I don’t understand and I wonder if somebody can explain to me please.
In the article is written, that the pollution has gone down to 10% ! What does that mean and compared to what?
Do we have 10% less pollution than before or do we have 10% of the pollution we had before?
I just don’t understand the way this problem is measured , but some of you might know?

I am actually very happy, that I don’t have the amount of black dust in my pool and my yard as I had last year (and the years before).
So now we just need light 24 hours.. With 5-6 hours black outs every day, we still have a lot of pollution in the area, because of the many generators (my own included)..

In a previous post I asked what had been accomplished lately, and this is indeed a very important issue and I appreciate that!

I wish I'd never brought up the environmental thing now lol

Hi Suzanne.
There is always somebody making charcoal - if not inside Costambar, then right outside Costambar.
It is especially at this end of Costambar, where I am living I believe. Inside Costambar or right outside in the area of Cafemba and Cofresi.
When I was on the board we always went after those people, because the smoke is just soooo bad and it sticks to your clothes, your curtains and whatever you have in the house.
Tejada, who worked for security at that time helped us a lot to destroy the places where the charcoal was burned.
Last week Steven Massads worker was making charcoal on the lot next to the house. He did that in the past too and he KNOWS that it is not accepted in Costambar. Steven is not here now, so I guess the worker does whatever he wants.

Apparently the security staff is not trained to stop actions like this!

I took contact to Los Mangos and they helped to get it stopped although they had to go 3 or 4 times, before the man understood it was serious.
Yesterday morning we had that heavy smell from charcoal again and I called Los Mangos again. They promised to look around and the smell stopped and we didn’t have any smoke last night or during the day today.
It is indeed prohibited by Media Ambient!

Suzanne, I don’t want to go into details or criticize anybody, however I don’t think I am the right person to take contact to Mr. Jose Polanco. I think his mail address is included in the group messages and maybe somebody else could be so kind and write to him.

The reason why I wrote about these issues on this forum, was because Don Docker said that we could bring up the problems here and Mr. Polanco would care.

And Don, I really don’t think I have made any personal attacks against anybody. As a matter of fact, you were the person who started the issue in a previous message and now you don’t want to talk about “crap”. So let’s try to behave please! It MUST be possible to have an opinion without you feeling offended all the time.

Anette where are they making charcoal??? I know for a fact that it was stopped years ago in Costambar and it is very definitely against the law in the Dominican Republic, if we saw someone making charcoal we reported them and it was stopped, that needs to continue being done.
Why don't you contact Jose Anette with some of your (and our) environmental concerns something can most likely be done maybe not about everything but who knows. Times have changed there is much more concern for the environment today.

Annette with your approach there is no way to respond to the concerns you raise. Polanco is worn down from his efforts and I don't see anyone else stepping up. I am through with working in this community. I didn't come here to go through the same crap every day. Personal attacks and criticism are easy, actually doing something is heard and you won't get any encouragemenht, as you know from the effort you put in.

Don, these problems happened years ago and at that time you couldn’t open a news paper without reading - every day - articles from a lot of people in Puerto Plata, who were against these actions you are mentioning. To place these kinds of “factories” close to a city, and especially close to a tourist center and a harbor would have been a crime actually.
I don’t want to take the credit away from anybody about the actions you are mentioning, however I was thinking about more recent problems! (The things you are writing about I have read in different places many many times)

You wrote in a previous message, that Mr. Polanco should be contacted through this site, when we have identified a problem.

I wrote about some of the problems I have identified ! These problems are “small” compared to the ones you are writing about and they exist for years..

And when I asked for information about, what had been accomplished I was thinking about our “smaller” problems in Costambar and not exactly things that happened several years ago on “high“ level... I hoped that something new had been done (or at least planed to be done)..

So it will continue as usual with people burning garbage and making charcoal ( which is prohibited by Media Ambient)
Building huts at the borders of the rivers and throwing garbage into the river (which is prohibited by Media Ambient)
Etcetera etcetera….
I just thought that I suddenly had the reason to be an optimist!

This seems to be turning into an environmental protection thread - my hobby-horse!

Yesterday, Sunday, we were walking the dogs on the beach at dusk. Naturally as is the way here, the beach was littered with garbage. Plastic cups, bags & plates primarily. Most of which is NON bio-degradable.

This got me thinking how much cleaner the island would be without disposable plastic food & drink containers. A quck "google" on the topic resulted in the discovery of a material called "BAGASSE" - a by-product of sugar cane refining. Here's the link to wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagasse

There are no problems in this world, just solutions waiting to be found ...

The answer to your question has been posted at least once before. The response to that post, and I'm not sure who it was that said it, but it was "History Blah, Blah, Blah". Jose has his short comings, as we all do, but I stand by what I said and would invite you to name some other person that has done something, rather than just complain to the world at large. So once again.

When Keppel Fels was approved to send in a barge to be placed right next to the Smith/Enron Barge, Jose and a small group had the opportunity to talk to the Supt of Electricity and at the time and were told bluntly that he had made the decision to allow the plant here and we would just have to live with it.

Jose along with Nielsen Martinez, who was Sec. to the Puerto Plata Chambar of commerce put together a non prift company called Movimiento Pro Rescate de Puerto Plata. Jose wasn't living here then so Nielsen contacted Claudia, Robert Harrison and me to work with them. The Executive of the Pro Rescate group were Polanco Pres. Juan Carlos Morales, Vice Pres. Apolinar Roderigues Treas., I was the Secretary. A brief was put together to send to the parent company in Singapore and I was contacted by a friend in the energy business who gave a me a personal contact to the person in charge of the company. That way we were able to keep them informed by e-mail, while we obtained signatures and a report. The man in Singapore was a Paul Fernandez so we sent the brief in Spanish only to learn he was from the Philipines and didn't speak Spanish, so it was sent in English. Letters were sent to the President Hipplito Mieja, marches through the streets in protest with support of the Pres of the Junta de Vecinos for Puerto Plata, the taxi association, the truckers association, the vendadores assoc. The Chamber of Commerce, Protests were staged at various times and we went to the Governor as well. As a result Keppel Fels ordered the barge to be sent somewhere else. On the 2 Nov we met the President Hipolito Mieja at Sun Village in Cofresi and he told us that the Supt of Electricity had been fired on the 1st of November.

Around the same time Ramon Ortiz had approved an incinerator to be installed in Playa Negro. This would have the capacity to burn 95% of ts garbage trucked in from Santiago. A presentation to the weekly meeting of the Ayuntimiento and a follow up letter were enough to stop that project, because the protest over Keppel Fels was still freesh in the minds of politicians.

Then there were two tank farms, one from Shell to be placed behind the Free Zone and another Texeco in Guzmancito. The same procedure took place and they were cancelled.

Finally in June of 2008 Pro Rescate once again had to start up with the letters, demonstrations etc against the pollution from the San Felipe plant. The Sec. Media Ambient Jaime David Fernandez ordered and investigation in September and in March of 2009 he issued an order against all four plants, which is currently in place. I know that hasn't been completely effect but Media Ambient estimate it is 70% effective. At the same time Jose Polanco was named as the North Coast representative to meet with the Secretary when it becomes necessary. He has been the face of protest on televisions and in the printed media and radio. That may have an effect on his business, but he has never complained, or suggested he wanted to back out.

I hope that answers yourt interest. Movimeonto Pro Rescate exists todat for the same purpose.

Don, It sounds great, that Mr. Polanco is the representative of Media Ambient at the North Coast, because we don’t have A problem - we have several actually.

A part of the air pollution there are HUGE problems with the two rivers on both sides of Costambar ( San Marcos and the small river between Cofresi and Costambar).
It would be a good start if Media Ambient could at least try to teach the people to use a garbage can instead of throwing all the garbage into the rivers.
Personally I helped out with two workers to clean part of the river between Cofresi and Costambar and in 3 days they collected 35 bags of garbage from the river.
And City Hall is actually picking up the garbage at that area around Cafemba and therefore there is no reason to use the river as “garbage can”.

The huts, which were build illegally at the border of the river directly behind Lóase should be removed and Media Ambient would have the power to do so. These houses ( huts , chickens, pigs and garbage) are affecting the houses close to Lóase directly.

Inside Costambar we have problems with unused and abandoned Swimming pools, which are filled with dirty water. These are hiding places for all kind of garbage, insects etc.

Additionally we have a huge problem at the beach, because of the toilets ( or the missing toilets)

These problems are serious and they affect the WHOLE area of Costambar ( mosquitoes and denke fever for example).

Don, you are telling that Mr. Polanco has done more work than anybody else here at the North Coast. That sounds very nice. Would you please inform us, what he has accomplished so far?
Thank you.

Not forgetting the volcanoes & the burning oil slick in the Gulf ...

<runs off to buy a gas mask>

Sue:
We're glad your back. Breathing problems have been a constant source of concern. Dr. Johnny Tavera has been a public/medical/political spokesman on this topic. Media Ambient assure they have an order controllig the amount of Sulphur Dioxide from all four plants. I beilieve they (Media Ambient) are trying with the resources they have to control the emissions. I also believe the plants blow off emission. There are the emissions from cars/trucks and motoconchos as well. I'm sure we have too many emissions, just look when they are burning the cane. Each of these things add up so polution is at an unacceptable level.

We should try to identify what problems are there because there is a politicial lobby locally that will work to help. Jose Polanco is a respresentative for the North Coast withedia Ambient. Please don't come back with some sort of personal/political diatribe because Sr. Polanco has done more work in this area than anyone else in Puerto Plata and should be contacted through this site when we have identified a problem. He cares and can approach the Secretary Media Ambient.

Thanks to the both of you for your replys

I myself did not think it could be from the plant, no other reason than I have lived here almost 3 years with it ( a lot worse than it is now )
I hope its not from there as the only answer would be to move out of the area.

I am feeling a lot better now, but this is the second time this has happened to me here the first time is just 2 years ago!!!! ( same time of year )
I guess the only thing to do now is wait, I am told that the 4 people who have been affected by whatever it is are all smokers myself included in that.

thanks once more Sue

Come to think of it Annette is right - lots of leaves were being burnt last week - probably to get rid of the mosquitos.

We had black dust at the bar last week.

We do live in a humid country, near the ocean which is polluted by the port & then atomised in the air we breathe & where there are little or no air pollution controls for vehicles, garbage burning or industry.

Paradise - unless you have respiratory problems ...

Hi Sue
I hope you are feeling better by now.
Personally I don’t think it was because of black dust from the plant. There was a weird smell in the air the other night, but I haven’t had black dust in my yard and pool for a long time. ( not that I want to defend the plant!). I don’t know where that smell came from around two days ago - it could have been the plant, but also somebody else burning something, which happens quite often.
It is extremely hot and humid right now and I guess that anybody, who is sensitive to this could get an asthma problem .
You can also get these symptoms from insect bites actually. A few weeks ago I was bitten by a strange insect looking like something between a bee, a fly and a mosquito. Never seen this insect before! My arm got very swollen and I felt bad the whole afternoon. Although I didn’t have problems breathing.
I don´t think that Costambar is fumigated lately, although APC has a machine for that purpose. Personally I am fumigating my yard and surroundings every week, but it helps only a little, because none of my neighbors apparently does fumigating at all..
And especially now after the lot of rain the insects are just everywhere!
Inside Costambar there is a lot of unused pools with dirty water - we can just imagine what strange “creatures” might live in that water…
Take care

Black dust from San Filipe planta - loads around last week.

Hi all
I am honestly not going for the sympathy vote here, but would like answers if anybody knows!!!!
For around a week I was felling a bit under the weather but was ok just worn out, after a winter in the Anchor it was no great shock, anybody who runs a bar, cafe will know just what I mean.

On Sunday I was feeling it so went to bed for 1 hour, when I woke I could not stand, Talk ( bonus) or breath (quite important )
I could not get dressed so ended up in the car Dressing gown on no shoes (picture this not)
Ken drove like a mad man to the clinic Central Medico, by the time i got there I must have looked bad as a security guard took one look at me pushed me into a wheelchair and rushed me to a Doctor.
I have to say they were fantastic, they put a line in and started to give me something,put me onto a nebulizer and got me breathing again ( thank god) The Doctor told me I was having a Severe ashma attack, once stable they admitted me to a room with blood pressure 245 over 155( that is very high )
The day after he told me if i had not gone in on Sunday I would not have seen Monday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But now the part i want the answer too I was the 4th person from Costambar with this problem, it was a alergic reaction to something( confirmed by the doctor) here has to be.
I also know of one other person who has not YET been to the clinic but has the same symptoms, just not has bad yet.
Has anybody got any ideas as i would quite like to avoid this for a second time around.
Is anybody else feeling this also if you are get help
It started with just a cough but on the chest and soon developed into more serious symptoms

any ideas

Sue