Opposition urges CIG to ‘come clean’ on ReGen
(CNS): As speculation mounts that talks between the Cayman Islands Government and Dart over the future of the waste management project, ReGen, have completely broken down, the opposition is urging the CIG to break its silence on the status of the project and “come clean” to the people about what is going on. Deputy Opposition Leader Joey Hew said that if the agreement is off, the UPM needs to tell the country the expected timeline, costs and environmental impacts of continuing to dump garbage at what will need to be a new site and what the costs are for writing off the agreement.
The original deal was signed by the PPM-led administration just weeks before the 2021 general election. Following that election, the new premier, Wayne Panton, who led the PACT government until October last year, raised significant concerns about the deal, including the price tag and the notable number of areas that had not been properly addressed or costed.
Since then, under first the PACT administration and then the UPM, negotiations to reach a final agreement with Dart have proved challenging and now appear to have stalled completely. This leaves the country in a challenging situation. As part of the preliminary agreement with the PPM-led government, Dart was given the green light to begin capping and partially remediating a significant part of the George town dump, aka Mount Trashmore, significantly reducing the remaining landfill area.
Officials have stated in the past that there is at least another five years’ worth of dumping space, but with a rapidly growing population and constant unchecked development of the island, the amount of waste generated on Grand Cayman is growing at an unprecedented rate. If the ReGen project remains stalled, the government will have to find a new place to put the island’s rubbish.
Hew, the shadow planning minister and the MP for George Town North, where the dump is located, said he was “deeply disappointed with the government’s absolute failure to make meaningful progress with the ReGen”, leaving the project’s financial close agreement and the environmental impact assessment process in limbo.
Hew blamed the current government and described this as a “situation that three years of dithering and delay by the PACT/UPM Government have put them in”. He said its failure to complete the deal and miss project deadlines “time and time again, has significantly increased the project costs” of what is already believed to be an extremely expensive endeavour.
“These inexplicable delays have created uncertainty and risk,” Hew stated in a press release last week ahead of the parliamentary scheduled for Friday, though this could be delayed due to the anticipated arrival of Hurricane Beryl on Thursday.
“The PACT/UPM Government’s term will end in about ten months, and the country will have regressed in providing a sustainable solution to our waste needs and failed to close the current landfill. This inaction could lead to significant environmental and financial consequences. ReGen was that sustainable solution, and if completed, it will provide the country with an environmentally friendly waste management system that would vastly reduce landfill needs for many decades.
“Composting and recycling would increase significantly, and the project will also provide Grand Cayman with sustainable ‘energy from waste’ that would be sold to CUC and help to deliver our energy transition targets.”
The plan is to extract the landfill gas trapped in ‘Mount Trashmore’ for electricity production. That gas, which is the cause of dangerous fires at the dump, leaks into the atmosphere at a rate of about 23,000 tonnes a year, which Hew said is “an environmental hazard”.
The arrival of ReGen would bring about the closure of the landfills in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, as the goal is to ship rubbish from the Sister Islands for processing at the facility in Grand Cayman. “That sustainable waste solution is within our grasp if the government can complete the contracting process, but I am increasingly concerned that all the benefits of ReGen are being thrown away,” he said.
During the 2023 budget session, Sustainability Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks said money had been budgetted to cover two years of work on the landfill project, saying then that the talks were still in progress and the deal was approaching financial close.
“However, six months later, the ongoing delay in finalising the ReGen project, with the government saying nothing, is increasingly concerning,” Hew said. “The periodic dump fires and the smell from the landfill are constant reminders of the urgency and importance of solving this issue — action is needed now.”
He maintained that ReGen “is not only the best waste management solution for our Islands but also the single most significant sustainability project currently envisaged by the government. Its importance cannot be overstated, and we are running out of time to implement it.”
If the CIG fails to complete the project, landfilling will need to continue at another site, but Hew noted that the government has not said where this might be. However, if it becomes necessary to continue landfilling beyond the lifespan of the current dump site, it is understood that the goal would be to find another spot on the Department of Environmental Health’s landfill estate in George Town.
Hew nevertheless implied that a new dump could end up in anyone’s neighbourhood and said the government must come clean and advise the country at the next meeting of parliament in July what is happening and whether any progress will be made before the next election.
“If no solution is forthcoming, tell the country where they have identified to begin a new landfill. What is the expected timeline for developing it, and what is the anticipated cost? How would the disastrous environmental impacts of such a decision be mitigated? What abortive contract costs would have to be written off? There are more questions than answers because the PACT/UPM Government has continued to fail to complete the ReGen contract and remains silent about its plans for waste management,” Hew added.
Over the last few months CNS has sent questions and requested an update about the state of the ReGen talks on several occasions. We have repeatedly been told that our inquiry would be address but the ministry has so far failed to answer any of our questions.
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Category: Environmental Health, Health
here is the secret the smart ppl know:
cayman does not produce enough waste to make the plant viable…
plus backward simpleton cayman mla’s do not want a proposal that will introduce waste collection charges(which all developed countries have btw)
anyway… enjoy wonderland….
100%, the goal is to put yourself out of business, meaning that the recycling and other diversion programs work so well that there is not enough feedstock to make the WTE plant viable.
caymanians elect these people so you have no-one else to blame but yourselves.
and to make things worse, you also prevent the most qualified and successful people on island from being elected…
welcome to wonderland.
This is not a question of the governments willingness but more a question of competence, intellect and intelligence. In the same way that we would not expect a group of grade-schoolers to solve this problem, can we really expect this collective of elected officials to do any better?
Cayman is crying out for competent and accountable leadership.
I really appreciated how Progressives did absolutely nothing themselves on the deal until just before the election.
i moved here in 93 and it was a hot topic then.
31 years later nothing has chsnged.
vote them all out.
and vote in who?….more local clowns?
Big surprise? Again? Obviously not yet time to face the truth about Cayman Islands ability to plan (and pay) for the future. It is just not there yet. Plan accordingly for those who can.
“The plan is to extract the landfill gas trapped in ‘Mount Trashmore’ for electricity production. That gas, which is the cause of dangerous fires at the dump, leaks into the atmosphere at a rate of about 23,000 tonnes a year, which Hew said is “an environmental hazard”.”
Mu understanding is that this is not the plan. The plan is to burn waste to generate heat and turn that into electricity. There is no plan to burn existing landfill, just waste once the facility is in operation.
The article says burn the trapped gas NOT the actual landfill. This would be in addition to burning the new garbage. So hopefully 2 sources of fuel for power.
Having now had 3 governments make no real progress on this solution leads me to one conclusion.
The selected development partner does not want the solution in the current location. So dither, argue, extend, etc. until space gets too low and it has to be reestablished in a different location.
If the issue is that government does not wish to annually contribute/pay the required costs they need to think of the costs that will be required annually the longer they sit on their thumbs.
This expenditure has to take precedence. Every part of the country will benefit.
MP’s be truthful. Say what the real holdup issue(s) are.
Lol, you give the 3 elected governments way too much credit – the real reason why they have made “no real progress” is because they are incompetent, ineffective and unaccountable.
mount trashmore…a testament to the incompetence of local mla’s and the absolute need for direct rule asap
Were there any foreign MLAs involved?
Yes, Saunders and John John. Big Mac is an honorary yardbird too at this point.
5 years space left provided there isn’t a hurricane to create enough waste to fill it sooner. Good job that’s an unlikely prospect.
On the basis of something the public certainly can’t grasp, in the final 10 minutes of their regime, the PPM leadership improperly signed a blank cheque agreement with the bad developer, to make some future undisclosed proposal, and they have the temerity to ask for an explanation on what is missing? Everything was missing, including a winning bid!
Indeed – however this does not provide any justification for the PACT/UPM sticking their heads in the sand and doing absolutely nothing for the last 3 years.
What this country needs is a set of politicians who are capable of doing more than just talking.
The hypocrisy from the opposition is astounding!
Yes, this get’s a yawn as ALL CIG parties have failed to solve this incredibly important issue. And it has no end in sight other than political bickering and negotiations with parties that are perfectly fine to fold their hands and watch the CIG cluster f..k. Cayman politicians are so incompetent and outclassed – they have no chance to negotiate with world-class lawyers, they simply are not educated enough. Heck, can they even read and write?????
I mean, lets get real here. Did anyone expect PACT/UPM to actually achieve or do anything meaningful?
The lack of action on REGEN is just another example (among many) of governmental inaction that is negligent and borderline criminal.
However, in spite of this, come election time, the same collection of incompetents will more than likely be gracing our parliament and picking up their ill deserved pay checks again.
While bragging they gutted the conservation law. About the only thing they haven’t blamed that law or is delaying ReGen. Give it time. That’s probably next week’s excuse. Right after Beryl blows away that claim of 5 year’s of space left.