Greenland's fate by next month
Publication: Weekend Nation
Paper Section And Page: 7
Paper Date: Fri, Jul 28, 2000
Byline: by Terry Ally
THE FATE of the controversial landfill at Greenland, St. Andrew, should be known by next month.
Minister of Health Senator Phillip Goddard said that by no later than the middle of August, officials from the Canadian environmental consulting firm, R.J. Burnside International, would be in Barbados to brief him on their review of the landfill.
After that, the report would go to Cabinet, then the public would be informed about the future of the facility, which has been idle since September 1997.
That $200 000 review was conducted in August 1998. It examined the landfill design, as well as matters relating to its management and operation, its method of leachate disposal and the functioning of the leachate lagoons. Prime Minister Owen Arthur said last year that it was "the frankest comments" ever on Greenland and highlighted a number of problems.
He did not disclose those comments but Goddard revealed that sections of the landfill liner in the main cell and the No.1 leachate lagoon were leaking and would require additional engineering works to make it usable.
The minister said, then, that it would take six months for remedial works to make Greenland shipshape. Government has said the construction of facility cost $20 million.