Lawmaker demands explanation for clandestine dump in Villalba

Heavy equipment was brought in to support the Villalba mayor’s efforts to remove debris and solid waste from the area, including, a lawmaker said, buried parts of motor vehicles.

By The Star Staff

Rep. José Aponte Hernández on Sunday demanded an explanation from Sen. Luis Javier Hernández Ortiz, the former mayor of Villalba and current Popular Democratic Party (PDP) minority leader in the upper chamber, for leaving a clandestine dump on the premises of the municipal Department of Public Works.

“Yesterday, the mayor of Villalba, Dan Santiago, along with the governor and the secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER), visited the municipal Public Works facilities to support the mayor’s efforts to clean up the area. During the process, an excavator came across the chassis of several motor vehicles buried in the ground and hidden from view,” Aponte said in a written statement. “This facility is, essentially, a clandestine landfill that poses an environmental hazard to the residents of that town. We recognize the current mayor’s efforts to clean up the environmental mess left by the current PDP Senate minority leader, but there must be accountability for these actions.”

“We are told that the Municipality, under Hernández, buried motor vehicles, including ambulances, in the aforementioned [property] without any permission from any state or federal agency, and in silence so as not to be discovered,” the veteran New Progressive Party lawmaker added. “Given this reality, I call on the secretary of the DNER […] to initiate an investigation into these serious allegations and hold accountable those who clearly committed environmental crimes in the municipality of Villalba.”

Gov. Jenniffer González Colón and several agency heads, including DNER Secretary Waldemar Quiles Pérez, visited the aforementioned area; they brought heavy equipment to support the mayor’s efforts to remove debris and solid waste from the area, as well as what was found underground, including what was left of several motor vehicles.