THERE IS TO be an emergency extension to the Mangrove Pond Landfill to provide some breathing space until the real extension is ready. A two-acre site on the south-east boundary of the landfill has been identified which should provide a nine-month buffer until the Ministry of Health acquires, prepares, and hands over a 12-acre site on the south-west boundary. Additional land was requested in October 1999 after the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA) learnt that Greenland would not be opened said deputy chairman Fred Broome-Webster. Cabinet approved the acquisition late last month, Minister of Health Phillip Goddard announced on August 25 ­ the day after the decision. Broome-Webster said the pre-extension was necessary to prevent another Mount Stinkeroo.

"What I think is clear here is that we are approaching a stage which is fairly close to the 1994/1995 situation and the board is anxious that that should not be repeated, therefore there is this provision for the nine months," he said yesterday during a tour of the St. Thomas facility by six board members.

Among the four absentees was chairman Rupert Spencer who was attending to another  important matter. Neither Broome-Webster nor general manager Chris Griffith could say when the $900 000 required to pay for the nine-month extension would be available, though they were hopeful it would come before year-end which is 14 weeks away.

The pre-extension is to be excavated and lined with an impermeable layer but it won't have any leachate drainage pipes. Instead the cell, which should take one month to build, will be sloped so that the leachate "would not compromise the integrity of the area," said Griffith. Both extensions will provide another 45 months of landfill space which Broome-Webster said should be adequate to allow the Ministry of Health to complete its repairs to Greenland and hand it over to the SSA.

During the tour, staff were busy building a new road to take the landfill a little higher while they await the completion of the pre-extension. 

"I can't say how high we will go but we would try to contain it to as minimum a height as is possible," Griffith said.

With the extended operation, Griffith said, the SSA would require at least two more pieces of heavy duty landfill equipment, including a compactor. The present equipment, purchased in 1993 and 1994, should have been out of operation three years ago.