Following the strike by St. Croix’s trash haulers last week, the Public Works Department and Lieutenant Governor’s Office are looking to begin tipping fees at the territory’s dumps.
There is no charge for dumping garbage at the Anguilla and Bovoni landfills now.
The government owes contracted haulers more than $1.5 million dating from 1995. The two landfills are plagued with major problems and have been cited repeatedly over the years for federal environmental violations.
On St. Croix, the government is under orders to move or redesign the Anguilla dump by Dec. 31, 2000, because of its proximity to the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport. The federal government is also pressuring the territory to bring both dumps into Environmental Protection Agency compliance by instituting a comprehensive solid waste management plan.
Keys to accomplishing those tasks will be charging companies and residents to use the dumps, as is done in other communities, and establishing a waste management authority, government officials say.
Sondra Nelthropp, a St. Thomas native, is now a technical assistant to PWD Commissioner Harold Thompson on waste management issues. According to a release from the Lieutenant Governor's Office, Nelthropp has returned to the territory to help start the government’s own waste management authority.
Nelthropp most recently ran the engineering department of a Massachusetts Water Resource Authority wastewater treatment plant.
According to Lt. Gov. Gerard Luz James II, strikes and many of the solid waste problems in the territory should become things of the past as the government begins a waste management program that will pay for itself.
