The misguided site selection for this Marriott / Fairfield Inn hotel will impact all of us negatively for decades to come.

And here is why we should all care and do something about it. 

• The environmental impact:  

 This is the response from a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service who is an ecosystem ecologist and biogeochemistry with a PHD and 14 years of experience working in the region, had this to say:

“With time, the importance of this area would only increase as it was undisturbed for an additional 11 years before they requested this change. That is a significant period of time for trees and wildlife to develop and so services increase, they do not decrease.

And, as development up the mountain or in surrounding areas increases, the value of wetlands for flood and water management increases as well.

Remember that these waterways connect from the ocean to El Yunque and most of the fish and shrimp navigate from the ocean to the mountains and back for breeding. When water quality and connectivity are disturbed the effects can propagate all the way up to the national forest.

Further, when it rains up the mountain, all that washes downhill, and concrete is waterproof. Wetlands collect this overland flow and then the plants and soils in wetlands filter out pollutants and sediment that would otherwise go straight into the ocean and into streams, affecting ecology and fishing, as well as the danger of floods.

We have water quality data for the mouth of that stream outlet, and so could also be able to detect how that can change with this development. "

This project was stopped in 2016 because of the protected nature of the area. I want to know what happened to this soil between then and 2019 when it was restarted? Was a new study done? If so, where is it?  

The fill the trucks are bringing in is coming from the top of a mountain that they are cutting off in Ceiba. All that dirt is being used to build up the ground in the wetland. They literally are burying the wetland. Once that area is high enough to build a hotel, where do you think all the rain runoff is going to go now? It will split around either side of the hotel grounds. Half will go into the communities of Fortuna and the other half will go to the Playa Azul areas if not also into the Brisas areas. 

If according to the Mayor, all the studies have been done according to the laws regarding wetlands, then where are the studies? Where? Produce them since the community was not given the opportunity to weigh in on this development that is going to impact us for the rest of our lives.   

Who is going to be financially responsible for the destruction of the coral reefs along our local beaches?  

• The impact to lives:

The stretch of road in front of the kiosks is already a traffic jam every single day. How long are the delays going to be once you add a big hotel? You know that people are going to walk across the highway from the hotel to the Kioskos and back and how many people are going to be hit?

This will negatively impact the people who rely on the land for their livelihood. The people who harvest the land crabs, the fishermen who will slowly run out of species to catch because the coral reefs will be damaged by run off because the natural filtration system has been buried. No more Conch, Octopus just to name a few of the species whom people rely on for their livelihood. Who is going to want to come swim in the waters without the natural filtration? No one.  

Lack of infrastructure to keep the lights on and the water flowing to every home in the area is a challenge now, who do you think is going to get the priority after the hotel is built?

The Spin that is being put on this mainly focuses on job creation. Well sure but they are service industry jobs. The community requires quality of life jobs. We have a multitude of empty deteriorating warehouses in Luquillo that are ripe for opportunity. There are so many avenues to bring QUALITY OF LIFE JOBS to our community.

You have to ask yourself these questions; Why was this so quietly started? If this is such a good thing and above board, why was there not a big celebration with ribbon cutting and speeches by everyone involved? There wasn't.

 Where is the environmental study? Where is the traffic study?

Please sign our petition to stop this devastation to our community.  

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Mead