In a motion submitted by the Legislator for the Vieques Affirmation Movement (Movimiento de Afirmación Viequense or MAVI) and amended by its vice president, Gilda Pimentel Porfil, the Vieques Municipal Legislature, reaffirmed its rejection of the open burning the United States Navy insists it will carry out on Vieques Island as part of the process to find unexploded ordnance.

The original motion only asked the Federal Environmental Protection Agency not to support the decision by the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board of May 14 that endorsed the Navy’s petition to burn 200 acres of vegetation in the former bombing range in Vieques. The Vieques Municipal Legislature has agreed to contact the US Congressmen who have asked for an investigation of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s work on Vieques and to communicate to the White House the need for intervention in this case.

The regional press of eastern Puerto Rico has given much attention to this issue recently and reflects the growing concerns for the Vieques environment and wellbeing of its population. Opposition to the burning has renewed efforts to unify diverse groups to rally support in defense of Vieques’ health concerns.

[Press release courtesy of Robert Rabin, robert.rabin@cprdv.org.]

For more information, you may contact Ismael Guadalupe Ortiz, Legislator (Movimiento de Afirmación Viequense) at 787-612-0723.

For information on the proposed Installation Restoration Program, see http://public.lantops-ir.org/sites/public/vieques/Munitions/MRonVieques.aspx

Photo from http://wikitravel.org/en/Vieques