In Pangasinan, garbage woes loom after dump closure
TRASH PILE In this file photo, a worker at Urdaneta City Sanitary Landfill uses a backhoe to clear a trash pile where newly delivered garbage from different towns in Pangasinan will be dumped. —WILLIE LOMIBAO
DAGUPAN CITY—Most local governments in Pangasinan province are scrambling to find a landfill for their solid waste after the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) closed the Urdaneta City engineered sanitary landfill last week. The EMB has also barred residents of Urdaneta City from using the 18-hectare property, which has exceeded its capacity, said Maximo Soriano Jr., Pangasinan environment and natural resources officer.
At least 19 towns and this city use the Urdaneta sanitary landfill that was built in 2011 in Barangay Catablan.
The dump, operated by a private company, can accommodate 40 tons of compacted garbage daily. In 2019, it received 18,467 tons of garbage, according to a local government audit that year.
In January this year, officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) inspected the site and issued two cease-and-desist orders for violations of the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004 (Republic Act No. 9275) and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act No. 9003).
Assessment
The landfill’s management was given until the end of February to address violations, like faulty drainage system and pollution concerns, but the company failed to meet the deadline. “The landfill accepts all kinds of garbage, whether these are biodegradable or nonbiodegradable, which are not separated in trucks,” said a former environment officer in the province. Vladimir Mata, Dagupan City administrator, said the local government had not transacted directly with the Urdaneta landfill operator.
Mata said they were dealing with a local contractor, which would haul the city’s garbage to another landfill in Tarlac City now that the Urdaneta dump had been closed.
The DENR cited the landfill’s inadequate drainage system, which is connected to the leachate (dirty or contaminated liquid from piles of garbage) pond, as one of the reasons for closing the dump.
An assessment of the DENR’s pollution adjudication board showed that the landfill’s storm drainage also contained leachate.
The board said it received complaints about the stench from the dump, and tests on water samples showed that these failed the DENR’s standards on water quality for sanitary landfills. Antonio Estrada, head of EMB’s environmental monitoring and enforcement division in the Ilocos region, said the pile of trash in the landfill had reached as high as a four-story building or at least 12 meters (40 feet).
Estrada said the closure was in line with the order of Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu to close all dumps violating environmental regulations by the end of this month.
