Dec. 18, 2002 – Public Works Commissioner Wayne D. Callwood is off to Orlando, Florida, this week to ask the Federal Aviation Administration to extend the Dec. 31 deadline for closing the Anguilla landfill, according to a release issued Tuesday.
John Green, the Public Works Department's senior solid waste coordinator on St. Croix, said on Wednesday that the department is asking for a one-year extension.
Callwood said he also will present FAA officials with information on the proposed location of a interim solid-waste facility and the results of preliminary testing at the site.
And, the release said, he will present information on what the projected final slope and height of the old landfill will be, how long it will take to construct the proposed interim facility, and how long the Anguilla landfill will continue to operate. "Upon their approval, we will be ready to proceed with the plan and commence improving the situation at the Anguilla landfill," Callwood said.
He said he expects the FAA, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the V.I. Port Authority — which operates Henry E. Rohlsen Airport — to approve the plans.
The government has contracted Landfill Technologies Corp., a Puerto Rico-based company, to handle St. Croix's solid waste on an interim basis until a permanent processing system is in place several years from now. Green said the plan calls for Landfill Technologies to bale and plastic-wrap garbage in an enclosed facility on the Anguilla premises.
The bales will be used to create slopes around the existing piles of garbage at the landfill, Green said, and eventually the garbage and the bales will be covered with earth and the landfill will be closed permanently. "This gives us a four- to five-year window to do active planning for waste disposal," he said.
He said the plastic wrap around the bales will keep birds and vermin from dining on the garbage. The FAA wants Anguilla closed because scavenging birds at the landfill pose a hazard to planes taking off and landing at the nearby airport.
The public will have an opportunity to comment on the waste disposal plans at a series of public hearings, Green said.
Accompanying Callwood on the trip to Orlando are members of the Public Works Waste Management Division and representatives of Landfill Technologies.
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