The massive clean up already has started to take place in the port town of Arroyo Barril in the northeastern part of the Dominican Republic, Samana.  The clean up involves removing some 50,000 tons of ash dumped there in 2003, and the money paid out in damages for the pollution abuse by the AES Corporation is at last being put to use.

So far the company has disbursed some US1.3 million of the US$6 million settlement according to Environment Minister legal Director Andres Marranzini.  He also informed media that US$300,000 was used an installment of a debt for fees and logistic material.

The funds while they have been sat have already generated over US$11,000 in interest and are handles and supervised directly by a trust at the Wells Fargo Bank in the United States.

Ernesto Reyna who is the Vice Minister in the Dominican Republic for Soil and Water had this to say “That money we don’t see it, we only request it from them (the bank).

In the Samna case US$2 million will be used and spent to take the ash to the cement plant in the zones big environmental clean up and also in works promised to the community whose estimated costs are US$500,00.

The Rock Ash that was dumped in 2003, was produced in an AES thermo eclectic plant in Puerto Rico, and was also dumped in Manzanillo and Monatecrisiti on the northwest of the Dominican Republic.