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i	2010 National Achievements in

Environmental Justice Awards

Recognizing Successful Partnerships
Achieving Public Health and Environmental Justice Goals

EPA is pleased to recognize the ENLACE Cano Marlon Pena Project for establishing
and implementing a land use and comprehensive development plan that works to
improve social, economic, and environmental conditions for eight communities in
the Cano Martm Peha Special Planning District.

The Cano Marti'n Pena (CMP) is a 3.5 mile long natural tidal channel located at the heart of the San Juan National Estuary. It
provides a vital connection between the San Juan Bay and the San Jose Lagoon. Impoverished squatters who migrated to San
Juan during the first half of the 20th Century built their houses in the mangroves bordering the CMP. For decades, the CMP
has been a symbol of urban poverty and environmental degradation. Legislation established the Project ENLACE Cano Martin
Peha, whose mission is to implement the $744 million land use and development plan. Cano Martin Peha Special Planning
District Act (Law 489) also created the Cano Martin Peha Community Land Trust, a first in Puerto Rico, which guarantees
affordable housing, resolves land tenure issues, and reinvests any future increase in land value back into the community.
The Land Trust is essential to the Plan's implementation, as it prevents gentrification and ensures that the current residents
benefit directly from investment in infrastructure, urban reform, and environmental restoration.

The partnership addresses environmental justice through mechanisms that allow for transparency, trust in institutions,
bottom-up participation, interdisciplinary approaches, respect for diversity, concurrent planning and implementation, constant
evaluation, and celebration of successes. Successful projects have included outreach on environmental awareness to more
than 3,000 students, the construction of the first vacuum sewer system in Puerto Rico, and the relocation of hundreds of
households to allow for dredging of the contamination in the channel.

Partners



Corporation del Proyecto ENLACE del Cano

Grupo de las Ocho Comunidades Aledanas

Martin Peria

al Cano Martin Pena

Fideicomiso de la Tierra del Cano Martin



Pena (Community Land Trust)




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