Alden confirms landfill stays put
(CNS): Having taken over the Department of Environmental Health just a few days ago as a result of the ‘Ozziegate’ scandal, the premier has confirmed that the policy remains the same to fix the dump problem on its current site. Alden McLaughlin also told the press Tuesday that the additional new ministry to his portfolio was a challenge but MLA Roy McTaggart was now the ministry counsellor and, as an able manager from the private sector, he would be there to ensure oversight.
However, the premier said he would be hands-on when it came to the policy development of the anticipated national waste-management strategy. He said that the landfill was staying in George Town but certain elements of the country’s future waste-management programme may end up elsewhere because of space issues at the George Town site. But he emphasised that his government would not move the landfill to Bodden Town or anywhere else.
McLaughlin warned that there were no “magic solutions” to the dump issue and the offer made by Dart as part of the ForCayman Investment Alliance, which the PPM has not supported, was never a viable option. He pointed out that all Dart was offering was a land swap and to dig four lined pits — nothing more. He said that even if the dump was moved, government would still have had to create a national waste management strategy and find a private sector partner to help deliver it. All it would have achieved, he noted, was to transfer the problem from George Town to Bodden Town, but would not have solved how the country deals with its waste in future.
Despite this government’s opposition to that proposal, he said, the landfill was not an issue in the ongoing talks with Dart over the review of the controversial NRA Agreement between Dart Realty, the National Roads Authority and the Cayman government. The premier said that moving the dump was never a stumbling block in these talks and government was expecting to make an announcement about the renegotiation shortly.
While Dart may have put the building of residential properties at Camana Bay on hold until the dump was sorted, the premier said that was not impacting the rest of developer’s investment strategy here in the Cayman Islands. But McLaughlin said it was in the interest of everyone, not just Dart, that the government pressed on and tackled the waste management problem properly. He said CIG would continue on the path of developing the strategy and creating a solution to last for fifty years, regardless of how that may play out at the next election.
McLaughlin was hopeful that before the country went to the polls in 2017 his administration would have gone through the entire process. Even if the project is not complete by May 2017, the government will have signed and sealed the deal with a private sector partner to address the existing landfills and develop a solution for all of the other elements of a waste management. He made it clear that he wanted a situation that would prevent a new administration from starting all over again and delaying what he acknowledged was a priority for Cayman.
Government is hoping to create a new long-term plan that will incorporate waste reduction strategies, recycling, reuse, composting and possible waste-to-energy, with the ultimate goal of reducing to a bare minimum the amount of garbage going into the landfills.
Related article on CNS: $450k compactor to address dump issues
Category: Environmental Health, Health
Read all 360 pages of the Cardno Entrix proposal Alden. Stop dicking with your people. We know what you are really about. People better start marching for initiatives like this and not for 1/4 mile of beach property that would cost the Government millions to fix after each hurricane or northwester. WAKE-UP natives. Sleep and slumber is over, time to WORK!
Alden wants his own set of studies that will say what he wants, no matter what the cost
So are you suggesting placing the dump in a residential area where there’s young families and their only major investment are their homes? Why should we suffer when mr. Billionaire Dart new the dump was already there when he made his investment?
Seems like you are discriminative to the poor and the rich should have their cake and eat it too!
This proposed site in BT would have been much further from any residences are to the the site in GT..
The bottom line is that it is disgusting how the site of the mount trashmore dominates the Cayman Island Landscape, is the biggest and most visible sight Cayman has for its visitors to remember. Only in third world countries do you see trash dump in such a state and this.
Move that stinking dump !
Let’s start afresh. I can hear it now……. A long time ago in a land not so far way…….. Okay we need a dump. So we can throw everything into it without recycling anything. And yeah, we need just enough trucks to collect the garbage once a week if they are all working properly. Oh, and when the dump gets really big and stinky we will blame someone else for its mismanagement.
So where should we put this rotting, vermin invested stink bomb?? I know…….. let’s put just behind Seven Mile Beach so that all the cruise ship passengers can see AND smell it. AND the tourists and residents along the lower part of Seven Mile Beach can enjoy the aromatic fragrance of the dump on a daily basis. Oh yes, and let’s make sure that the shiny new development called Camana Bay and CIS School really gets an eye full and nose full of dump. That makes perfect sense. Yes, but wait…….. didn’t we get several highly expensive industry professional reports telling us that we need to modernize our waste management system and formulate a modern waste management strategy so allow our islands to flourish and be eco-minded? Yes!!! But who reads that garbage anyways!!! ?????
Yep but do we replace them with a shower of ########
The problem is ignorance. People believe their small habit changes will not make a difference. It comes down to educating the youngest generations from an early age. While we may not see change immediately, by the time the gov actually implements a waste management stgy this same generation will be ready to enter the work force and their ‘newly’ learned habits will be second nature (much like it is in Canada).
For a few million dollars the landfill can be fixed easily but what your leaders want is to spend lots of money on it. They see it as an economic boost to the economy they figure if they spend 40+ million it would be a good thing for everybody involved. XXXXX A perfect example is the new equipment they are purchasing 10 new trucks for new workers? I don’t think so its 10 new trucks so that the old trucks can be ignored and parked with the other 15 trucks waiting for repair. The new compactor that is a waste of money a used compactor can be purchased in Orlando for 70k with a warranty. The new compactor is a used compactor already, so are the “new trucks”.
Anyways there are a few people on the island that actually know about landfills perhaps they should be consulted. To date they have been ignored perhaps because they are not of the just throw money at it mindset.
Now you are just being silly. When did this or the previous administration ever use expertise on this island? You may be sure that someone somewhere is making a lot of money but its certainly not the poor.