A lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice against the V.I. government and the Waste Management Authority (WMA) just might spur the territory to close the Anguilla and Bovoni landfills, an EPA official said Thursday.
Carl Axel Soderberg, director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Caribbean Environmental Protection Division, spoke Thursday at the St. Croix Rotary Club.
While he said the landfills on St. Thomas and St. Croix are problems, Soderberg passed it off with the comment, "We’re dealing with it."
That means suing the territory for failure to follow through on plans and promises about the landfills.
After his presentation Soderberg was asked about the lawsuit filed last month by the U.S. Department of Justice. The suit recounts a history of plans for the operation and closure of the Anguilla and Bovoni landfills on St. Croix and St. Thomas, respectively. Several deadlines have come and gone, and new plans have been laid, but hundreds of tons of trash continue to be brought to the two sites daily.
The latest closure date for the Anguilla landfill is now January 2011.
"The lawsuit is insurance that that will happen," Soderberg said Thursday.
Last week, WMA general counsel Ivor Stridiron said the lawsuit was unfortunate, in that both the authority and EPA have been working together well to bring about what both sides want – closure of the landfills and an alternative way of disposing of the territory’s trash. |
The authority has been working on closure plans, which include building a transfer station, installing gas control and burning facilities, and capping the mountains of trash on the two sites.
But planning is easy, he said.
"Everything comes with a price tag," Stridiron said, adding that the lawsuit "totally ignores the reality" of the V.I. government and WMA.
According to Stridiron, the lawsuit calls for a fine of as much as $35,000 a day for each day of operation, going back to 2002.
Stridiron said the only real effect of the lawsuit is to force the government to redirect money from the landfill closure to lawyers. By the time it finally comes to trial, he said the case will be moot because the landfills will be closed.
Thursday Soderberg wasn’t seeing it that way. He said closure of Anguilla and Bovoni would be great regardless of the day, adding, "that would really be Christmas in July." But he said the territory has a long history of not following through on plans.
"Yes, they have made promises to comply, but they have failed to comply with their promises," he said.
The lawsuit and its threat of hundreds of millions of dollars in fines might be just the pressure needed to finally force the issue, he said.
He even disputed the description of Anguilla as a landfill.
"It’s really not a landfill, it’s a dump," he said.
But not all Soderberg’s remarks were quite as disparaging. Pressed by Rotarians for an overall grade for the territory’s environmental health, Soderberg said, "Maybe a ‘C’ when all is said and done."
While the territory gets good marks for air quality and drinking water, Soderberg says the three islands produce five times more greenhouse gasses, per capita, than the 50 states.
According to Soderberg, the territory produces these gases at a rate of 121.46 metric tons per resident. The rate for the U.S. mainland is only 19.95 metric tons, while the worldwide rate is 3.9 tons.
Two major factors contribute to this, he said. First, the population is fairly small, and the territory includes the second largest petroleum refinery (i.e., Hovensa) in the hemisphere. Further, the territory’s electricity grid is powered by burning fossil fuels.
