EVERY PRECAUTION has been taken to guard against slipping and wash out at the controversial Greenland landfill.

Though the drainage measures, announced by Government yesterday, appeared to address the concerns of the Scotland District Association (SDA), its chairman Richard Goddard remained unconvinced about the suitability of the location.

Minister of Health and Environment Liz Thompson accompanied by a barrage of officials and a large entourage comprising members of the boards of statutory corporations in her ministry toured the facility and surrounding areas yesterday. Project Director Dr. Hugh Sealy said that the landfill would be completed by the end of July or early August ­ three months ahead of schedule and without any cost overruns.

"Due to prudent engineering and good team work" he said they were able to add ten other projects in the original US$10.2 million budget.

These were: gas vents, biological leachate system of three lagoons, a new access road, an upgraded workshop, additional wet weather material, portable fences to prevent wind blown litter, cattle grid to shake dirt off truck wheels as they leaving the site, a bridge over the western watercourse, the capping of the entire surfaces of the old and new Mangrove landfills and lining of the Bagatelle Quarry for bulky waste. Drainage works were designed to handle nine inches of rain per hour, he said.
Thompson said the landfill won't become operational until the completion of the interim transfer station which is being constructed at Vaucluse, St. Thomas, next to the Mangrove Pond landfill.

However, Goddard and his advisors, who met the press immediately following the Government tour and press conference, said the mere fragile nature of the Scotland District made it very risky to have a landfill there.

"If we had a 20 inch rain we could find ourselves without bridges or transportation down here for two or three years, what do you do with the garbage? It is a major, major problem," he said.