PPM accuses PACT of sleepwalking into dump disaster
(CNS): Almost a year ago, less than three weeks before the 2021 elections, the PPM-led Unity government signed a deal with Dart for a waste-to-energy facility, and the PPM, now in opposition, is accusing the current administration of “sleepwalking the whole country into a horrific environmental disaster”.
Joey Hew, the deputy opposition leader and shadow minister for the environment, defended the deal his party struck to tackle the Cayman Islands’ long-running waste management problem and said that if PACT was serious about sustainable waste management, it would embrace the ReGen solution.
However, this week Premier Wayne Panton broke his six-month silence on the situation, explaining on social media that he had not said anything previously because the discussions were sensitive and government could not “just lay it all on the table”.
But he did say there were concerns about the costs of the deal signed by the previous administration, as several important components of managing the country’s waste were not costed in the agreement. Speaking on Wednesday evening on Marl Road, he said that the government needs to have a clear picture of what the overall costs are going to be.
The premier said that during the negations after Dart was selected in October 2017, the discussions focused on affordability, and because the costs were high, various elements were “de-scoped or removed” from the project, such as the cost of collecting trash from the Sister Islands and shipping it to Grand Cayman.
Panton said that what PACT was trying to do was to understand the true costs of the entire project and management of waste, including the remediation of the dump, collection and shipping, as well as the actual waste-to-energy facility.
“Then we must look at it overall and say, is this something the country can afford?” he said. “Once we have satisfied ourselves… we can make a decision about whether this is a good thing to do or not.” At this point, PACT is continuing with the talks because there are few options now available, Panton added, implying that the deal signed by the PPM had tied the government into the ReGen project.
But he stressed the need for government to know exactly what the true overall costs will be and the increased impact on public finances over the next three decades before it makes the final commitment. He said PACT had to do the best it could to ensure it had mitigated all the risks and covered the gaps, as the project is already under review by the auditor general and would be subject to further review.
The previous administration has already come under criticism for signing the deal just a few weeks before the election, given that Dart was selected as the preferred bidder more than four years before that.
But Hew has defended the project and pointed out that several members of the current administration were part of the previous government, including the minister who had signed the deal, Dwayne Seymour. He also noted that the chief officer in the current premier’s sustainability ministry was also very familiar with the project.
He argued that the shipping costs for carrying the garbage from the Brac were a very small part of the overall costs and were nothing compared to the cost of losing the ReGen agreement.
“It is a real disappointment that the government that touts itself on having a sustainability focus is allowing one of the most environmentally necessary projects to wither on the vine,” he said. He noted that the current landfill has less than three years of life left and it could take that long to complete the waste-to-energy facility.
“The premier said in October that he was not rushing into an agreement on ReGen without assessing the sustainability of the contract. I hope he understands the sustainability of doing nothing,” he said.
Hew said that he believed that the Department of Environmental Health was allowing “free-for-all dumping at the remaining ‘temporary’ mound at the landfill”.
“We have gone back to bad days of dumping and not compacting and covering the garbage. The international standard is to compact and cap every 24 hours. We have gone away from this,” he stated. Compacting plays an important part in dump management, cutting down leeching and extending the life span of the landfill. But most importantly, it also prevents fires.
Hew’s comments came against the backdrop of another fire at the dump last Tuesday night, which he said was in this open area.
However, over the last year, there have been far fewer serious blazes than in previous years before the remediation work, which Dart is being paid to do in a separate agreement from the main deal. Before that work, there were a number of massive fires, fuelled in part by public sector cost-cutting during the recession that had led to the DEH virtually abandoning compacting due to broken equipment and an inadequate marl budget.
Hew said the government needed to sign the ReGen deal so the work on the WTE could get underway as quickly as possible. “Completing ReGen and correctly managing our landfill is a matter of national importance, but it is also a matter of life or death for my constituents,” he said.
“I intend to keep beating the drum until there is some action from the premier and his government on one of the most important environmental concerns for our islands,” Hew added.
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Category: Environmental Health, Health
Is ot the same disaster that exited for 8 years with PPM scramblimg to award a lucrative contract as their reign of pillaging was comimg to an end?
With limited land for waste disposal in landfills, the Japanese have developed a unique waste management system that also reflects their ethic of land stewardship.
https://reporternewspapers.net/2016/11/18/waterline-japans-unique-solution-waste-management/
You see any samurai around here? Totally unworkable.
Japan’s sophisticated waste management system has lessons for the rest of the world: everything from polystyrene to packaging for pills can be separated and recycled.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/the-japanese-have-a-word-to-help-them-be-less-wasteful-mottainai/
#caymangoesmottainai
It makes zero sense to hire Dart, a company with no expertise in the matter to build and run this facility.
Just because they are here already, and have the money? That’s a pretty low bar to set.
They are not doing this philanthropically. They will (and likely have) constructed the agreement to ensure it’s profitability for themselves.
If the CIG is serious about doing this right, why don’t we invite real, previously established companies, with proven track records for these kinds of projects?
Asking for a friend …..
They are just the middleman and their overheads are sky high. However, Dart knows CIG still has their pants down around their ankles and has significant leverage to boot. Unfortunately time isn’t on Cayman’s side, this has been deferred far too long.
Now we’re squeezed between an ever growing mountain of trash and a cradle to grave solution, the only one that seems viable if executed responsibly. It might not be the only or most appropriate solution, but to start the tender process again would be not only gross negligence but insane.
The deal and whatever caveats it contains that might seem contentious simply needs hammering fairly and squarely for all stakeholders Waste disposal in the first world isn’t sexy and isn’t free and may not get you votes but it needs to be priority number one.
If PACT had been sleepwalking, then PPM mustve been MOONWALKING for the last 8 years, that is going backwards on this deal
Lets face it. No one has any idea what to do.
it has been ‘he-said-she-said’ for decades.
first thing we must admit is that there is no one in cig with the expertise to handle these negotiations.
remember cig can’t even get parking machines working at the airport….
time to petition the governor or uk directly on this issue.
Dear Mr. Deputy Leader, where did you get your training in amd for negotiating the remediation of the dump. Do you really think we can trust your opinion versus that of the current Premier. Come on ole boy ya can pull up ya pants all ya want, but know your limitations ole boy. Unlike many people I understand the machinations Poor people Orogressives have with the Dart conglomerate , members last and present, we know how campaign funding runs so please don’t insult our intelligence by talking about “sleep walking” when a turtle could have moved the negotiations much swifter than it took the PPM mafia in 8 years. So the PACT government has all rights to look with an eye if scrutiny at the deal to ensure true value for money for the country and not just for some Movement if politicos. And oh mr deputy my pseudonym should not matter to you I know it will but hey, concentrate on the rest will ya. You work for us not the other way around, so if you’re going to criticize watch what you say and wipe the Tampico outa ya eye before you do ( figure of speech bredren).
Hew said the government needed to sign the ReGen deal so the work on the WTE could get underway as quickly as possible.…
He has no idea what he is talking about. Without expertise on WtE, about the cost of pollution controls, the entire Cayman, not just his constituents will be walking into environmental and health disaster, let alone financial catastrophe.
Zero Waste is the only option. And it is doable. Consult Japanese experts.
Any Japanese high tech is considered sci-fi here.
But this is the only way to go. Grand Cayman is approaching the point of no return – overdeveloped wasteland suffocating in its own $hit.
DRAMATICALLY NEW WAY OF THINKING IS A MUST.
Japanese do offer professional help in waste management around the world.
Anything less than sci-fi will just prolong Grand Cayman agony. Cayman has no expertise and no land to go the “usual” way continental countries chose. What they can do, is not what can be done on a speck of land mid-ocean.
In Kamikatsu, Akira Sakano set up the Zero Waste Academy.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/the-japanese-have-a-word-to-help-them-be-less-wasteful-mottainai/
what is Zero waste?
https://www.goingzerowaste.com/zero-waste-1/
What is the Circular Economy?
https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/what-is-zero-waste-what-is-the-circular-economy
Poor PPM and their leadership duo of Roy and Joey. Sir Alden waiting in the wings chillin up at South Coast bar waiting to take back the official leadership in 2025
Madam Alden drinking at South Coast bar.
Wasn’t Wayne PPM untill just before the election ? He quit in protest over Mac remember ? Then he joined him !
I’d take Wayne’s business acumen over Joey’s any day. Panton is deeply suspicious of this contract (and rightly so) and doesn’t want it to be any more of a cash cow for Dart than it already is.
why rightly so? Have you got access?
I agree and believe you’re correct.
Wayne was PPM until December 2021 please don’t forget that little fact
The main thing that I saw while reading about this idiocy was that
PPM accuses PACT of sleepwalking into the dump disaster. Maybe so, but PACT didn’t have a part of letting this idiocy build up. It’s enough to make someone believe the “leaders” of the Cayman Islands are nothing more than milk men for themselves!
Wasn’t Jon Jon minister responsible for 4 years ? He’s PACT now so yes they had a hand in it
Both sides of government have been sleep-walking for decades! You all are to blame!
So True, I recall back in the early 90s when the government announced the dump had just 5 years more life. Then after 5 years another announcement of another 5 years life, and so on and so on….
Do they think we the public are idiots?
I guess so since we elect bigger idiots.
Like ppm really cared or else they’d have done something. Pact do need to pass it on to dart and walk away. It’s a disaster.
PPM are not credible on environmental issues.
That is very true.
Let’s all be reasonable and not overstretch the PPM’s intellectual comfort zone beyond moon phases , donkeys and in school exorcisms . Unfortunately, the present set of elected officials is not what i would call an improvement by any stretch of the imagination .
A dozen years ago the Little Cayman dump had a nice little incinerator unit. Very little land filling/dumping was required. After a few years the incinerator was broken and has never been replaced. So the dump became a dump once more. This is any easy to fix situation but CIG for some reason can’t see low hanging fruit.
Those guys should know about sleepwalking. The deal was the best for them as the PPM are big Dart supporters. What do they really have to worry about as if you listen to them they will be back in power soon and then can put all the sweetheart deals back into action.
Perhaps MP Joey Hew will finally tell the country about all the development agreements he negotiated and concessions granted to wealthy developers by the PPM Cabinet from 2017-2021 during Cayman’s construction boom.
He has often misrepresented the facts claiming he did not negotiate or sign any new deals or granted concessions just renewed old agreements which can be best described as embellishing the facts to suit the political narrative.
Dart ‘bid’ the waste management against some experienced international operators and whose bid was relegated to standby status in case the Dart deal blew up during next-stage negotiations. Trouble is, the Dart bid terms were kept under wraps, and comparative analysis with the other international bid was carried out under confidential conditions without disclosure.
There is no way of assessing whether CIG is getting best value for money at this stage, nor can corruption (heavy discounting of initial bid price in return for confirmation of bid award during second stage negotiations) be ruled out…
CIG can’t afford their chosen solution, Dart needs to finance it. You think the other bidders were willing to do same?
PPM were asleep at the wheel for 3 terms now blaming PACT for their failure. Couldn’t make it up!
All the PPM achieved was handing over millions and millions of tax payer dollars to consultants.
PPM really likes the deal they cut. I wonder why? I guess if we knew where the money was going it would be easier to understand. But in Cayman that kind of info is treated as commercially sensitive for reasons never explained.
PPM can’t even talk. Kmt.
8 years of “soon come” vs. 10 months of all talk are too different to be similar arguments.
Once PPM members actually serve their constituents that democratically elected them vs. being lapdogs and doormats for Big Money and shamelessly selling out anything they can grub together, then we start a discussion.
Ensure your affairs at home are in order before pointing fingers at the world.
It is not reassuring that Dwayne Seymour was the Minister that signed the Dart agreement. Not sure if he knew (or knows) the ramifications. Mr. Seymour, who seems to have good intentions, appears to be intellectually challenged.
The same Mr Seymour who couldnt organize the garbage that gathered on the side of the road for weeks when they put hin in charge of DEH Ministry. Dont think we forgot,.
Disgusting, isn’t it! I wonder if anyone is considering getting Merry Old England to help us run the Cayman Islands government. The last fifteen or twenty years haven’t been squat!
We don’t need England to help run our Government.
We need the voters to vote responsibly for a “real alternative” to PPM, UDP, PACT or any amalgamation thereof.
It’s only until we have competent, intelligent, brave and proactive MPs, who have integrity, will we be steering Cayman in the right direction.
Oh yes. Let’s get Boris down here… see if he can do better.
You ga jokes!
Finally Wayne speaks and seems to be talking sense.
How many unfavorable deals did PACT inherit from the PPM?
PACT has inherited 8 years of PPM mess, which we have no clue how big it is and how far it reaches.
You forgot Wayne was PPM until December 2020?
Oh really. I don’t see you or pact complaining about the Multimillion Dollar reserve created by the PPM that helped keep us going through the pandemic so that layed off Caymanians could eat and get healthcare and is still being spent by pact. Not to mention that things would have come to a standstill without the progress on eGovernment promoted by the much maligned Joey Hew.
Why did he take Jon Jon on board then? Wasn’t he minister that signed the DART deal ? I’d jon Jon going to recuse himself from the process ?
Hew needs to be focusing on ratifying the deadlocked deal to sell electricity from ReGen to CUC, or is he in conflict there? If there is no deal with CUC how can and costs be recouped through sale of electricity, is Camana Bay going to setup their own local distribution grid? I think not. And they can’t legally under the current law without OfReg amending CUC’s licences. Simply not going to happen.
Hew is just Dart’s little drummer boy, this is not about his constituency, it never has been.
“Forgive him for he knows not what he does” – written in the Bible somewhere
True. Hew, just like Alden, is a “Yes-man” for Dart and Big Money as well as the Lodge.
Re-Gen is almost certainly a complex debt trap with a whole new set of environmental waste and pollution concerns, being proposed by a group with no particular expertise on the subject, paired with a failing record of re-negging on a decade of previous signed commitments. PPM’s deals with them almost always include CIG deadline failure clauses with claw-backs and indemnities, all courtesy of Appleby’s gotcha department. CIG should publish all signed and committed deals so we can all review them. PACT are supposed to be shining the light in on what last 4 administrations have improperly bound the public of Cayman Islands to, not continuing that misguided tradition.
I’m not apologist for PPM, or any previous government, but PACT is making them look like a bunch of financial geniuses.
If Wayne wants to know the true costs of things, how can he explain the rush to give themselves raises, and hand over cash to their cronies under the pretext that they worked in tourism?
If PACT wants to know the true costs of anything their Finance Minister is the last person in the world you would want to ask.
For God’s sake, try to accomplish at least one thing before your four years are up, and please don’t make it be a $400M bullet loan that will put us in debt for generations to come.
Fix the damn dump Wayne!
PPM will always agree with anything proposed by big developers. They are worse than UDP in negotiating bad deals
That is true. As unpleasant as it may sound, PPM has been more spendthrift than UDP as well as negotiating bad deals for Cayman.
Hopefully, over the next three years PACT will be better than PPM, but, as it stands, PPM’s and PACT’s performance is making MacKeeva’s UDP look brilliant.
Hopefully, the next election in 2025 will produce a “real alternative” to PPM, PACT and UDP. Responsible voting is going to be of vital importance.
Wasn’t Wayne PPM until just before the election ? Has he changed his views overnight ? Never heard him complaining about the plan for the dump so why is he doing it now
Yes it is going to cost. We the residents have to be prepared to fund some of this cost. However, we need to weight this against the cost of not creating this facility and just having another land fill, regardless of lining.
Why does Wayne insist on addressing the country from the Marl Road platform which is not even a legit media house ? The name says it all! Marl Road = gossip and slander
I believe it was the assistance given by CMR in getting Wayne elected that he’s now having to pay back with an ‘exclusive’ deal on information, despite the fact Government have their own media office. In my opinion selective engagement of the media shouldn’t be allowed, information should be provided to all media houses without favor.
Yep Marl Road are essentially the gov’s mouth piece. A total shambles to not only journalism, but to everything else. I thought I’d seen it all
If you have to ‘get in bed’ (figuratively speaking) with convicted criminals i.e. McBeater, Bryan and Hill, to help run your administration it tells you all you need to know about the absolute dearth of talent and political intellect we have on this island. Idi Amin would doff his cap to this island.
I’d be very, very cautious of anything Dwayne Seymour signed off on. Not the sharpest tool in the box. I suspect the IQ of the Dart team has an advantage (I am NOT defending their ethics, values, concern for Cayman, just that thy are WAY better at their job than our elected officials). DART walking into the negotiations with Dwayne must have put a smile on their face.
The donkey moment as well as the moon bit proved that to an extreme. Dwayne’s presence during any form of negotiations is just another epic youtube moment waiting to happen.
The average house plant is smarter than at least 10 of them.
Stop insulting house plants
I agree with you. Honestly, Dwayne Seymour is the biggest elected idiot.
Wonder whether Mr. Seymour was given autonomy to negotiate before signing, or whether Madam Alden sent Mr. Seymour on a fools errand (PON intended), because that would give Alden cover as well as an ability to blame anything wrong on Jon Jon.