Steri Tech faces emissions complaint in Salinas amid $700,000 fine
An environmental group, Comité Diálogo Ambiental, filed a complaint with Puerto Rico's Department of Natural and Environmental Resources over new emissions from the Steri Tech sterilization plant in Salinas, Sin Comillas reported on October 11, 2026. The complaint describes an intermittent flame and dark smoke from one of the plant's chimneys, drifting toward the homes of the La Margarita development.
What the group reported
The complaint says visible emissions were observed and documented on October 1, and posts on social media said they were seen again on October 2. A person who was there recorded the October 1 emissions on video.
Ethylene oxide monitoring carried out between July and September 2026 in La Margarita and Brisas del Mar indicates that the plant's emissions contribute to elevated levels of the gas in the surrounding community, the outlet reported. The U.S. Department of Justice and the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently began a $700,000 fine process against the company for violations of the Clean Air Act.
The group asked the department and the other agencies with jurisdiction to determine whether the plant was operating within its permits. Its spokesperson also called for continuous ethylene oxide monitoring at the plant's perimeter, the publication of all reports and a health study in the nearby communities.
The plant's filings
The plant stands on a property of about 6,298 square meters in Río Jueyes, Salinas, which the company has owned since 1986. Its operating permit for the manufacture and sterilization of hospital products was filed again in each of 2023, 2024 and 2025, and each filing is recorded as approved.
In July 2025 the company filed an environmental review to upgrade the sterilization building to meet updated federal standards for hazardous air pollutants, including a permanent total enclosure to capture fugitive ethylene oxide emissions; the filing of July 17, 2025 is recorded as approved. A construction permit under the same case followed on April 9, 2026 and is recorded as under rectification. On July 16, 2026 it filed to install sterilization unit No. 6 and degassing unit No. 5, recorded as approved. That filing says unit No. 3 was taken out of service and that the two new units need no expansion of the building and no civil construction.
The homes next door
Every La Margarita house whose sale was recorded since 2023 sits within about 500 meters of the plant's property. Seven home sales were recorded there so far in 2026, at a median price of $150,000, against a median of $70,000 across seven sales in 2025.
Several houses have resold at higher prices. One on Calle F sold for $75,000 in 2021 and for $200,000 in March 2026. Another sold for $56,800 in 2021, $115,000 in 2022 and $185,000 in April 2026. A house on Calle D that an investment company bought at a foreclosure sale for $98,500 in May 2026 was resold for $169,000 in September.
