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WORLD NEWS Monday 30 January 2023

Puerto Rico’s southern region fights for cleaner air, water

By DÁNICA COTO land’s largest thermoelec-
Associated Press tric plants and other indus-
SALINAS, Puerto Rico (AP) tries, including a company
— Shuttered windows are that produces thermoset
a permanent fixture in Sa- composites, a material
linas, an industrial town on used in major appliances
Puerto Rico’s southeast like refrigerators. That com-
coast that is considered pany, IDI Caribe Inc., is the
one of the U.S. territory’s facility that releases the
most contaminated re- most emissions in Salinas,
gions. according to the EPA.
For years, toxic ash and Overall, styrene and eth-
noxious chemicals from ylene oxide, a carcino-
coal-fired and thermoelec- genic gas, are the top two
tric power plants have en- chemicals released into
veloped this community, the air and water in Salinas,
and residents have com- A resident of Salinas, considered one of the most contaminated officials say. Salinas and
plained about health prob- towns in Puerto Rico, waits for a meeting with U.S. Environmental Guayama also have sulfur
lems ranging from cancer Protection Agency officials to start, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023 in dioxide levels that exceed
Salinas, Puerto Rico.
to Alzheimer’s. (AP Photo/Danica Coto). new standards.
Then last year, a bomb- Meanwhile, a study by
shell: Officials with the U.S. Salinas also has one of the tion has prompted the EPA Puerto Rico’s Chemistry As-
Environmental Protection highest incidence rates of for the first time to test air sociation published in late
Agency traveled to Salinas cancer in Puerto Rico, with and groundwater in Puerto 2021 found the presence of
to announce that the town 140 cases reported in 2019, Rico’s southeast region, heavy metals linked to coal
also has one of the highest the newest figures avail- with Administrator Michael in potable water in Salinas.
concentrations of ethylene able from the island’s Cen- Regan saying that low- The amounts found did not
oxide, a cancer-causing tral Registry of Cancer. Sali- income communities and exceed regulatory limits.
gas, in a U.S. jurisdiction. nas has a higher rate than communities of color have Scientists doing that study
Puerto Rico ranks 22nd out the neighboring town of suffered unjustly for de- were forced to collect sam-
of 56 U.S. states and terri- Guayama, where cases of cades. ples from individual homes
tories based on total man- cancer and other diseas- Salinas is a town of nearly because the government’s
aged waste released per es have increased since 26,000 people — of which water and sewer company
square mile, at 4.2 million the coal-fired power plant 28% identify as Black — at the time blocked access
pounds. Six of the top 10 began operating there in with a median household to aquifers that residents in
municipalities in that cat- 2002, said Dr. Gerson Jimé- income of $18,000 a year. the southeast rely on, en-
egory are in Puerto Rico’s nez, director of the Meno- More than half of its popu- vironmental activist Víctor
southern region, with Sali- nite Hospital who has testi- lation is poor, according to Alvarado said. Since then,
nas ranked sixth, according fied in public hearings and the U.S. Census Bureau. legislators have approved
to data obtained from the called for the closure of the The town is nestled be- a law that requires the
EPA’s Toxics Release Inven- plant. tween the coal-burning company to provide ac-
tory. The level of contamina- power plant, two of the is- cess for testing.q

UK leader fires party chairman over tax bill allegations

By Mike Fuller and Jill Law- In a letter to Zahawi, Sunak
less said he had been forced to
Associated Press act to keep his promise that
LONDON (AP) — British his government “would
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have integrity, professional-
fired the chairman of the ism and accountability at
governing Conservative every level.”
Party on Sunday for a “seri- In his response to Sunak,
ous breach” of ethics rules Zahawi pledged to sup-
in failing to come clean port the prime minister as
about a tax dispute. a backbench lawmaker
Sunak had faced days of and made no reference
pressure to sack Nadhim to the ethics inquiry. He at-
Zahawi amid allegations he tacked the media — which
settled a multimillion-dollar first revealed his whopping
unpaid tax bill while he was tax bill, reported at almost Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi leaves the
in charge of the country’s 5 million pounds ($6.2 mil- Conservative Party head office in Westminster, central London,
Treasury. lion) — and claimed some Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023.
The prime minister act- reporting did not reflect (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
ed after a standards “legitimate scrutiny of pub- tive Party chairman when in shares in YouGov, an
probe found Zahawi had lic officials.” Sunak took office in Octo- opinion polling firm he co-
breached the ministerial Zahawi headed the U.K. ber. founded. The probe began
code of conduct. It said Treasury from July to Sep- The investigation into Za- in April 2021, but Zahawi
he had failed to disclose tember 2022 in the final hawi by HMRC, the U.K’s did not declare it when he
details of his dispute with months of Prime Minister tax office, centered around was appointed Chancel-
tax authorities and the fact Boris Johnson’s tenure, and the sale of some 27 mil- lor of the Exchequer more
that he had paid a penalty. was appointed Conserva- lion pounds ($33.4 million) than a year later. q