U.S. company pays $6 million for Dominican port dumping

U.S. company pays $6 million for Dominican port dumping    Virginia-based AES Corp. has made a $6 million payment to the government of the Dominican Republic as part of a settlement for dumping rock ash in two Dominican ports.
   Dominican Environment Minister Max Puig confirmed the payments had been placed in a trust account of the Wells Fargo Bank in New York, and will be used to remove rock ash dumped on beaches in the Atlantic Coast port cities of Arroyo Barril and Manzanillo, according to a report in Dominican Today.
   The Dominican Republic filed suit against AES last year in a U.S. federal court over the dumping of rock ash, an industrial waste material produced at an AES plant in Bayam'n, Puerto Rico. The country charged that AES dumped 82,000 tons of the material from October 2003 to March 2004. The suit alleged the dumping caused environmental damage and sickened locals. The two sides reached settlement in March.
   AES, a major energy provider for the Caribbean country of 9 million people, had denied any wrongdoing.
   Puig told the publication that 29,000 tons of rock ash has been removed from Arroyo Barril, but 22,000 tons still remain. An estimated 30,000 tons remain at Manzanillo.
   The settlement requires that the country will dispose of the materials within 120 days from when the payment was deposited.