The Public Works Department does not have the resources to bring the Bovoni landfill into compliance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidelines, department representative Roan Creque told the Senate Planning and Environmental Protection Committee Wednesday.
"There is nothing we can do to come into compliance without a check," Creque said.
EPA Virgin Islands coordinator Jim Casey, Planning and Natural Resources Commissioner Dean Plaskett and Creque spoke at a hearing called to review a consent agreement the territorial government entered into with the EPA to bring the Bovoni landfill into compliance with federal guidelines.
Casey also updated the committee on the EPA's recent announcement that it would move to disapprove the government's landfill program at both Bovoni and Anguilla on St. Croix, thereby giving the federal agency the authority to take over their regulation. Currently, Planning and Natural Resources regulates the landfill program that the Public Works Department operates.
The EPA announced Monday that the V.I. government had not adopted necessary solid waste regulations or allocated sufficient staff and resources for the program. The federal agency will hold public hearings on June 27 and 28 as the next step before possibly taking over regulation of the landfill program.
"Compliance is as bad as it was three years ago," Casey said. Countering Creque's request that the federal agency provide funds for the landfill program, he said, "Funds are not given to any other place for the upkeep of landfills."
The government lacks regulations regarding the venting of methane gas, which has provoked underground fires in the landfills, and the prohibition of hazardous waste, the EPA has said.
Plaskett said earlier this week that his office has prepared a set of regulations that is awaiting approval by the Legislature and Government House.
In a release from committee chair Adlah "Foncie" Donastorg's office later Wednesday, Donastorg said, "Everyone knows I welcome this long-overdue federal intervention. I'm going to ask that the federal government hold specific individuals personally responsible for seeing landfill cleanup efforts through. The buck has been passed again and again. We are talking about a major threat to public health and the environment – this must be made a priority."
In other action, by a 4-0 vote, the committee approved a minor Coastal Zone Management permit for Alex Randall to construct a 375-square-foot, concrete private dock on Water Island, where he resides. Sens. Donald "Ducks" Cole, Norman Jn Baptiste, George Goodwin and Donastorg voted for the permit. Sen. Almando "Rocky" Liburd was absent from the vote.
The committee will reconvene at 10 a.m. Thursday on St. Croix in the Legislature Complex in Frederiksted. The Anguilla landfill will be a focus of the deliberations, with EPA, Public Works and Planning and Natural Resources officials again asked to be present. The committee will also take testimony on the recent oil leak at the St. Croix Alumina plant, which according to the release may have contaminated the Kingshill aquifer.
