Environment, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean

ENVIRONMENT-PUERTO RICO: Wanted: Space For Waste

Carmelo Ruiz

SAN JUAN, Sep 11 1998 (IPS) - Environmentalists and the government agree that Puerto Rico faces a critical solid waste management situation, the problem is finding a solution.

According to environmental scientist Neftali Garcia, Puerto Rico produces more than 8,000 tons of garbage daily, although some reports in the local press claim that the actual figure is in the region of 10,000 tons daily.

Landfill space has virtually run out. Thirty landfills are currently in operation, but more than 20 of them will have to close in five years because they do not meet the requirements of the US federal law passed in 1994, known as the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

The requirements call for landfills to be constructed with plastic liners and monitoring equipment, among other things.

The San Juan landfill is one of those facilities scheduled to close. Located in the middle of downtown San Juan, next to the enormous Plaza Las Americas shopping mall, it rises 30 metres above the surface and receives 1,000 tons of garbage a day.

In order to meet the RCRA’s strict requirements, the Puerto Rico Solid Waste Authority (Autoridad de Desperdicios Solidos) (SWA) negotiated an agreement with the Puerto Rican Environmental Quality Board and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The resulting agreement between the three agencies brought about the SWA’s plan for the management of solid waste, known simply as The Regional Plan.

The Regional Plan divides Puerto Rico into nine regions, with each required to have one landfill that complies with the RCRA. Each region is supposed to be entirely responsible for the waste it generates.

Of these nine regional landfills, eight of them are currently existing municipal ones that are in the process of being modernised for their new roles. The remaining one was recently constructed, and was built by the US-based Browning Ferris Industries (BFI) corporation in the southern coastal town of Salinas.

The plan is already in trouble. The landfill for the town of Barranquitas, was put in place to serve the mountain area and was expected to remain in operation for decades. Instead it will have to be closed in 2003. This decision came about after long negotiations between the residents of Barranquitas and the SWA.

When the Barranquitas landfill was in the hands of the municipal government, it was seriously mismanaged and caused serious pollution problems and it is therefore unfit for expansion into a regional facility, says Verdor Barranquiteno, a Barranquitas-based environmental group.

According to sources close to the SWA, two other regional landfills are scheduled to close by 2003 for reasons similar to those of Barranquitas.

Furthermore, the construction of the Salinas regional landfill, to be built and operated by BFI, has run into a wall of opposition from local residents.

“BFI intends to bring in garbage from the Barranquitas area and the San Juan metro area into the proposed Salinas landfill if it gets built. That would be legal only if the Regional Plan is modified,” says Garcia. He adds that at this point, the Salinas landfill opponents have a good chance of prevailing.

So, the Regional Plan is left four landfills short, and the greater San Juan area, which generates 43 percent of Puerto Rico’s solid waste, is left with no nearby landfill.

The landfill of the town of Arecibo, a north coast town to the west of San Juan, is being considered for the San Juan metro area’s waste. However, Garcia warns against it.

“That landfill is right in Cano Tiburones a fragile wetland that has enough pollution problems. That facility is in such bad condition that I doubt it will function for more than seven years.”

Garcia opposes any further landfill construction in Puerto Rico. “All landfills leach polluted waters which sooner or later reach underground water. This happens even when the landfills meet US federal requirements,” he says.

Incineration is another option being considered by the SWA. The France-based Montenay corporation plans to build a solid waste incinerator in the town of Salinas, not far from the place chosen for the BFI landfill. Puerto Rican environmentalists are opposed to incineration.

“Incinerators have always failed. Through the decades, newer and more advanced incineration technologies have been tried and have failed. In fact, most of the incinerators built in the US in the 70s have had to close,” says Juan Rosario, a solid waste expert at Mision Industrial, a local environmental organisation that provides legal, technical and organising assistance to grassroots groups.

“Incinerators release dioxins, furans and heavy metals, all of which are extremely toxic, into the air,” warns Garcia. “After incineration, 20 percent to 25 percent of the garbage turns into toxic ash that has to be disposed of somewhere.”

Rosario, who is convinced that recycling and waste reduction are the solutions to Puerto Rico’s solid waste crisis, feels that the SWA Regional Plan is part of the problem.

“The Regional Plan is based on the assumption that our per-capita production of waste will increase in the future. If you accept the production of waste as a given, as something that can’t be changed, then there really is no choice but to build more landfills and incinerators,” claims Rosario.

“What the Regional Plan and the new federal regulations will actually do is concentrate the waste disposal business into the hands of a few transnational corporations, like BFI and US Waste. Once that happens, the SWA will, for all practical purposes become a BFI subsidiary,” adds Rosario.

In Rosario’s view, once a government or municipality agrees to the construction of a landfill or incinerator, there is no escape and no way to turn to recycling.

“Landfill and incineration contracts have what are known as ‘put or pay’ clauses, which means that you agree to provide the facility with a certain amount of garbage. If you provide less than that amount, you are supposed to pay a compensation to the landfill or incinerator company. To put it in plain words, this will kill recycling.”

Rosario and the fellow staff members at Mision Industrial believe that finding real solutions to Puerto Rico’s garbage crisis, like recycling and waste reduction, will be possible only if communities and grassroots groups organise to defeat proposed landfills and incinerators.

 
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