Installation Scorpio Recycling, Inc.in Toa Bajais among more than 100 places in different jurisdictions in the United States that will receive more than $1,000 million in federal funds for cleanup projects, the organization announced this Wednesday. Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, in English).
Scorpio Recycling, Inc. is part of the National Priority List Program Superfund of the EPA, which groups together sites that represent a threat to public health and the environment due to the different degrees of contamination they exhibit. In Puerto Rico, there are 19 active sites on the Superfund list, according to the agency.
The money for the projects, which comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act (BIL), include disbursements for new cleanup plans at 25 Superfund sites, continuing with other cleanups at more than 85.
“People who live in Puerto Rico have seen firsthand how transformative the Superfund program can be for communities”he pointed Lisa GarciaEPA regional administrator, in written statements.
“This investment in the United States and Puerto Rico builds on the historic progress we have already made in recent years to ensure that communities living near contaminated, seriously uncontrolled or abandoned sites receive the protections they deserve,” he added.
In the case of Scorpio Recycling, Inc., a former six-string metal recycling facility, mismanagement resulted in soil contamination with acids, lead, and other metals. The company began operations in 1972 and purchased all types of metal and sold it to foundries in the United States, Brazil, Spain and Japan.
The EPA stated that remedied immediate risks at the site by excavating and removing battery frames and debris, as well as stabilizing contamination on parts of the sitetreating the soil with trisodium phosphate as an interim mitigation measure to immobilize lead.
“The $3.1 million that the EPA allocated for Puerto Rico will be used to rectify the contamination and continue the cleanup in this last stage of the work”detailed, for his part, the governor Pedro Pierluisi in the same statement.
Specifically, BIL funds benefiting the EPA will be used to install a gravel cover in an industrial area and a dirt cover in a conservation area on the site.
The works are estimated to be the last planned work to remediate contamination at this location and are scheduled to conclude in 2028.