March 5, 2002 – "Not in my backyard" was the attitude affirmed by nodding heads as the Senate Planning and Environmental Protection Committee addressed alternatives to comply with a federal order to cease dumping more than 300 tons of garbage daily at the Anguilla landfill by Dec. 31.
Sen. Donald "Ducks" Cole, the committee chair, warned that the government is facing "Hurricane Anguilla" as debate rages on finding a feasible alternative solid-waste disposal site as the deadline, announced nearly three years ago by the Federal Aviation Administration, looms.
The committee's meeting on St. Croix Monday was to hear reports on Public Works Department progress toward meeting the FAA deadline.
The Anguilla landfill is located directly southeast of Henry E. Rohlsen Airport. According to the FAA, three species of birds that scavenge at the dump pose the threat of coming in contact with aircraft engines while planes are taking off and landing. Also, the FAA says, smoke from periodic fires at the dump are another aviation hazard.
Meanwhile, the federal Environmental Protection Agency is levying fines against the government daily because of the landfill situation, and the need to find another treatment site on St. Croix is heading smack into a legal collision, Sen. Carlton Dowe said. "No matter what site you select, someone is going to scream," he said.
The Turnbull administration and the Port Authority signed an agreement with the EPA last August to clean up the Anguilla landfill.
John Green, senior solid-waste coordinator, described a timeline which began Thursday with circulation of a request for proposals. Site visits are scheduled on March 15, and the deadline for submitting proposals is March 29. "The only concern is the construction phase," he said, because "we will be moving into the hurricane season and rainy season."
The alternative solid-waste treatment technology suggested in the Public Works request for proposals is the "wrap and bail" technique proposed by the governor last November. (See "Interim waste option: Shrink and wrap it".) The process involves separating composting and recycling matter, then baling and storing the waste at a temporary on-site structure for later disposal.
On April 19, a five-member team will begin reviewing the proposals submitted. The main criteria are that the bidder be a local contractor, meet EPA requirements, be able to work speedily to complete the project and submit a bid between $8 million and $14 million for construction of the temporary waste-storage facility and its maintenance over the next five years.
Green said he has visited manufacturers of the equipment contractors will need to treat the waste. He said it could take six to eight weeks to get the equipment fabricated according to the project specifications.
The Turnbull administration wanted to proceed with a proposal submitted to the government last year by Caribe Waste Technologies to build and operate a gasification plant on St. Croix that would process all of the territory's solid waste. Gov. Charles W. Turnbull offered the "wrap and bail" idea after the CWT plan ran into opposition by the Water and Power Authority, which declined to agree to purchase the byproduct electricity the process would produce.
Location, location, location
"Do you have a contingency plan in the event we don't meet this deadline?" — as laid out by Green — Cole asked. Nelthropp replied, "There is no other approved site unless we barge to St. Thomas."
"St. Thomas!" Cole exclaimed in a "not-in-my-backyard" tone of voice.
Arriving late for the hearing, Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen told colleagues she had been at a meeting with area residents and lawyers about health concerns over the airborne red dust that was a byproduct of the now-closed St. Croix Alumina plant. She asked about possible alternatives to the Anguilla site for St. Croix's waste. "I am going to concentrate fully on the location of the site," she said.
Two locations have been proposed:
– 129 acres in Estate Jealousy, now farmland, north of the Agriculture Department headquarters and adjacent to the Castle Burke, Upper Love and Calquohoun communities and the Educational Complex.
– The old Hurricane Hugo debris site in Estate Body Slob across from the Friedensberg housing community, next to the new fish and produce markets and northeast of Central High School.
"You-all can only come up with sites in 'humble communities,'" Hansen protested.
She asked if an analysis had been done of the effects of other industries on the public in nearby areas. She said a lawsuit brought against the alumina company detailed cases of rash, asthma and skin lesions in neighborhoods as far from the plant as Estate William's Delight in the west and Ruby/Queens Quarter in the east. "We continue to abuse small people we think don't have the tools to go against the toughest firms," she said.
Hansen told her colleagues that she is ready to take on the challenge, so they need to make sure that they involve the community in their decisions.
In a Feb. 19 letter to Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett, Cole asked that the department "come prepared to discuss what strategies are in place to handle the approaching deadlines."
On Monday, Hollis Griffin, director of PNR's Division of Environmental Protection, stated that "the Anguilla facility by virtue of its age does not meet the standards prescribed by federal law for operation of a solid-waste disposal facility."
The government is under an EPA administrative order concerning both the Anguilla facility and the Bovoni landfill on St. Thomas. "Those facilities were never true landfills as defined by federal law," Griffin said. Both were in operation before the V.I. Solid and Hazardous Waste Management Act was enacted in 1978, he said.
Turnbull approved an amendment to the V.I. Code in January which requires public notice and full participation in the territory's solid-waste permitting process. During testimony Monday, Sonya Nelthropp, manager of the Public Works federal compliance program, thanked the Senate for forums such as the hearing that allow the public to be aware of the issues affecting the community. "It … saves money for our department," she said.
The committee urged the administration officials to move forward quickly with a public information program to help in meeting the FAA deadline.
Facing the Dec. 31 deadline by which to get an operational alternative in place, "It seems that if the impetus is not coming from this body, this project will not go forward," Sen. Emmett Hansen II said.
Port Authority worried about liability
Gordon Finch, executive director of the Port Authority, which manages the airport, detailed his concerns to the Senators about possible liability if a airplane crash ever occurs as a result of the birds and fires at the dump.
Cole asked Finch about possible alternatives if the Dec. 31 deadline is not met. "As executive director of the authority, I get served with complaints on a weekly and monthly basis," Finch said. "A lawyer makes sure that every possible contributor will be cited." He said the Port Authority, the Public Works Department and the FAA could all be named as defendants in a lawsuit.
Finch has said previously that the FAA has the authority to decertify the runway and close the St. Croix airport if the deadline isn't met. (See report of the March 2001 Port Authority board meeting, "V.I. to lose millions if FAA deadline missed".)
At the end of the five-hour session, there was consensus on two things: That the solid-waste management issue is a t
ime bomb of health and environmental concerns, and that the success of the project to find an Anguilla alternative hinges on public involvement in all aspects of the planning.
The V.I. government has known of the federal government's concern since May 1999. "I'm a little distressed about the whole thing," Sen. Roosevelt David said Monday.
