BY MARIA MIRANDA

Of the Daily Sun staff

mmiranda@prdailysun.net

The community organization based in Adjuntas, Casa Pueblo, and a group of civic, community, professional and scientific citizens, announced Monday that they hosting a people’s march slated for Sunday, Feb. 19, to call emphatically on the governor to stop the Vía Verde natural gas pipeline project.

The activity, dubbed the National March: Puerto Rico firm against Vía Verde, will kick off at 10 a.m. and will begin in front of the U.S. Corps of Engineers headquarters in Puerta de Tierra, then pass by the Capitol building, and will culminate in front of La Fortaleza in Old San Juan.

“This march will go hand in hand with values, citizen responsibility and a call for Puerto Rico’s best interest; while sending a message to Gov. Fortuño that the island’s issues can’t be resolved with imposed alternatives, which are antidemocratic and non-participative,” Casa Pueblo Spokesman Arturo Massol said at a news conference at the Bar Association in Miramar.

Massol added that the march’s message will also be that the island’s problems can be resolved through dialogue and creating alliances between the state government the communities and the economic sector.  

The Corps of Engineers issued a draft Environmental Evaluation on the Vía Verde project stating that the project would not cause “significant impact.” Local citizens have until Jan. 30 to issue comments on the project. The Corps is expected to reach a conclusion soon after.

The protest also seeks to call on the governor to set aside his “double speeches,” contracts,  misuse of public funds, loss of time building the wrong route and the abusive expropriations of families from their homes.

Massol said that since 2010 the government has been aware that the project is not a viable one; is not a practical alternative, won’t reduce electricity costs or the island’s dependency on petroleum and it also fails to reduce environmental pollution.

“This disastrous project, as impacting as the mine explosion proposed decades ago, will leave a wound in our natural resources including our waters, forests, archeological and farming, among others, through a 92 mile stretch that will never heal and at the same time will put at risk the lives of 200,000 citizens. This same evidence has practically been accepted by the current Puerto Rico Electric and Power Authority Board of Directors President José Ortiz,” Massol said.

Meanwhile, he noted that “without base or arguments to continue with the Vía Verde project, the governor is forced to stop it.”

Furthermore, Massol said that the government has finally acknowledged the project will cost some $800 million rather than the $400 million originally estimated.

Last week the Puerto Rico Engineers and Land Surveyors Association (CIAPR by its Spanish acronym) also denounced the deficiencies and environmental impact of the Vía Verde natural gas pipeline project.

The group that represents professional engineers from the island rejected the project design and proposed a comprehensive analysis of other alternative sources of energy for the benefit of electricity consumers.

The group also censured the island’s state government's lack of transparency regarding the provision of documents relevant to the project’s impact.

CIAPR President Ángel González Carrasquillo said that, “there are innumerable measures to lower electricity costs that only require administrative and governmental will for their implementation. Having a significant consensus about this in Puerto Rico, we do not see any reason to continue with a project that we have been publicly analyzing for months, and insist on a gas pipeline that does not offer the required standards of security and efficiency.”