Gov Rick Scott names environmental violator to South FL Water Management District

[seafan]

New water board member defends environmental record

By CURTIS MORGAN, Miami Herald
June 17, 2011

One of Gov. Rick Scott’s new appointees to the South Florida Water Management District board ran a garbage incinerator in Miami-Dade that two decades ago was branded an “environmental nightmare” ago by state regulators and slammed with a then-record fine.

The sooty smudge on the resume of Juan Portuondo — a former president of Montenay Power Corp., which operated the county-owned waste-to-energy plant in Doral for several decades — has drawn criticism from some environmentalists.

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(In 1991) The county and company were fined $640,000 in what Carol Browner, the secretary at the time, said was meant to be a “strong message’’ for years of repeated violations. Among the worst: smoke laced with dangerous levels of heavy metal and rainwater soaking through garbage and toxic ash to taint surrounding groundwater. In addition, the facility failed to report several unexplained explosions, including one that badly burned a worker.

.....

Juan Portuondo (via Miami Herald)


This guy worked at Montenay Power Corp from 1987 until 1998.

.....

Portuondo also popped up in a 2005 Miami-Dade County inspector general’s audit questioning contracts doled out by Brown and Caldwell, a company hired by the county to inspect waste facilities. The audit, according to a Herald story at the time, found a “very troubling” $68,000 contract for Portuondo to inspect the Montenay plant at the same time he was being paid as a company lobbyist.

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The Herald article later states that in 2009, Montenay was fined another $485,322, stemming from 'failing to properly operate a system intended to reduce mercury and dioxin emissions.'.


Was Mr. Portuondo still lobbying and inspecting for Montenay during all of those years of violations as well? Seems like his *inspection skills* are nonexistent. But lobbying? Perhaps too successful in propping up more violations.

Lane Wright, Scott’s spokesman, said the governor knew about the circumstances behind the garbage incinerator fine and did not see it a barrier to serving in the unpaid but influential position. The nine-member governing board oversees an agency that manages the water supply and flood protection for 16 counties, along with directing multi-billion-dollar Everglades pollution cleanup and restoration projects.

“The governor felt Mr. Portuondo was the best candidate for the job,’’ Wright said. “He has the experience necessary to be able to succeed in the position.’’

Gov. Rick Scott undermines Florida's water policy, June 8, 2011





A defrauder of Medicare who is hiding out in the Governor's office gives the green light to an environmental lawbreaker to "protect the Everglades" and our water supply.


Criminals are infesting our government.

[William769]

1. And the hits just keep on coming.

[onethatcares]

2. portundos ability to succeed in the position

probably amounts to shaking out every public dollar he possibly can to line the pockets of his companies.

On a side note. THis is Floriduh, the place where we allow nestles the ability t harvest or spring water for free and sell it in stores for
1.00 a pint, the place where jebby thought the best thing to do with raw sewerage was to dump it in the aquifier where we could drink it.
so this rape is nothing new.

[Relax77]

3. Voldemort strikes again

Sad that our governor is elected in mid term elections when turnout is low. Is there a way to get a recall in Florida? It's been less than 8 months and the bad news just keeps rolling in. 2014 is too far away.