Environmentalists sue over hotel project.

Conservation organizations sued the Environmental Quality Board (EQB) for having approved the environmental impact statement submitted for the Dos Mares-JW Marriott Resort proposed for a forested area along the coast in Luquillo, reports Caribbean Business (Dec. 3, 2004). "The EQB approved the environmental impact statement despite the objections of various federal and state agencies and the observations made during public hearings about deficiencies and incorrect information in the document," said Luis Jorge Rivera of the Initiative for Sustainable Development. The Dos Mares project, proposed by the Planning Board, would involve the construction of 978 housing units, 450 hotel rooms, and two golf courses of 18 and nine holes. The environmental groups want to preserve the area as part of the Northeastern Ecological Corridor, which would protect forested areas running from the Caribbean National Forest (El Yunque) to the ocean. They also claim the two resorts would add additional stress to a water system suffering from chronic water shortages. The developers note, however, that the planned Northeastern Aqueduct, which will include a 12-million-gallon reservoir off the Fajardo River, will sufficiently increase supply in the area to accommodate the resorts.