Dr. Max Puig, the Dominican Minister of Environment, said recently that his government is certain that the lawsuit filed last Thursday on its behalf in U.S. federal court against power giant AES has every possibility of succeeding.
“For a long time people have been asking us to act, but we didn’t want to be too hasty and decided to do all the necessary evaluations,” Minister Puig said.
“If we have taken this step it is because we are certain that the suit we have started has all the possibilities of coming though successfully. Now, all the evidence and documentation that the lawyers have will be considered, and the start date of the trial will be set.”
AES Corporation is a U.S.-based power company named in the lawsuit along with three of its subsidiaries, AES Atlantis, AES Puerto Rico and AES Aggregate Services.
The lawsuit has caught the attention of local officials given that they are considering a proposal from AES to construct a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant on Ocean Cay, near Cat Cay and Bimini.
The lawsuit also alleges that AES sought to dump the ash at Ocean Cay.
The other defendant in the Dominican suit is Silverspot Enterprises, and its CEO Roger Charles Fina, who the Dominican government says conspired with AES and corrupt Dominican officials to illegally dump thousands of tons of rock ash generated at AES Puerto Rico on pristine Dominican beaches between late 2003 and early 2004.
The Dominican government is seeking damages in excess of $80 million from AES, charging that “the defendants are liable for the destruction of the beaches, the pollution of international waters, numerous serious physical injuries including irreversible brain damage, permanent paralysis and permanent physical ill health, and for creating a public nuisance.”
The D.R. seeks an award from the U.S. courts that would cover the costs of restoring the beaches to “their previously-pristine state” and “cover all other costs resulting from the (rock) ash waste disposal,” and punitive damages “in an amount sufficient to punish (the) defendants for their egregious wrongdoings and prevent (the) defendants from illegally dumping waste in any developing country in the future.”
AES has yet to answer the complaint.
The precedent of suing an American company for violating American laws outside U.S. territory is what Dr. Puig sees as the most important aspect of the case.
Dr. Puig also noted that other countries in the Caribbean have approached the government of the Dominican Republic for information on how to proceed with similar cases, notably Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago is the world’s leading exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the main supplier of LNG to the United States.
“The US Federal law establishes that when a (company) generates waste, (that waste) is (the company’s) responsibility until it disappears. What the legal representatives have established is that this company violated the US federal laws in proceeding to get rid of the waste produced by creating phantom companies and hiding their responsibility,” Dr. Puig charged.
The Dominican environment minister said that in filing the lawsuit, the Dominican government “has assumed a well thought-out, responsible and brave position.”
AES has said that it had proper permits for disposal of the ash, which again AES says was not toxic.
However, the legality of those permits is also at issue in the lawsuit.
AES Vice President of Communications Robin Pence told the Journal that “the allegations are false, and the claims have no merit.”
“We will defend the company vigorously against the allegations,” Ms. Pence said.
By: Quincy Parker, The Bahama Journal
