Operation of toxic landfill to face Council scrutiny

Dangerous levels of mercury and other toxic substances were found in Cebu City’s Inayawan landfill.

The Cebu City government’s objective to close the dump remains unaccomplished, Councilor Nida Cabrera said in last Wednesday’s City Council session.

Cabrera, an environment advocate, disclosed the findings of scientists from the the University of San Carlos in her privilege speech. The 15-hectare landfill turned 15 years old that day.

The Cebu City Council agreed to hold a public hearing on Oct. 16 to hear the findings of the USC’s chemistry department and to ask the Mayor’s Office about the status of the closure plan.

Cabrera said City Hall must speed up work on a closure plan so the city could properly manage the accumulated garbage, especially the hazardous waste being dumped at the landfill.

A P1.2 million outlay in the city’s 2012 budget for the closure plan has not been utilized.

“The landfill has indisputably reached its maximum capacity. Not only are there unsegregated biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes in the landfill, but also toxic components of waste stream, such as mercury, cadmium, and other hazardous substances,” she said.

Mixed garbage

The USC study entitled “Fate and transport of chromium, lead and mercury in the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill” showed that toxic chemicals are present at above-average levels in the city’s dumpsite. A no-segregation-no-collection garbage policy is in force in Cebu City but mixed garbage still ends up in the landfill.

Garbage in the landfill is hauled to a private site in Pulpogan, Consolacion town. Mayor Rama ordered the closure of the Inayawan landfill on March 30, 2011 after the city was notified several times by the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources that it was violating the Solid Waste Management Act which prohibits the operation of open dumpsites.

By December of the same year, a cessation order by the mayor directed that “all solid waste in the city, after proper segregation at source, shall be transported to a duly licensed facility as authorized by DENR.”

“The landfill, however, could not be considered as properly closed in the absence of a closure plan, posing hazards to public health and the environment,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera said the Inayawan landfill is being used as a “transfer station” for garbage before it is trucked to Consolacion town based on an inspection report from the Environment Management Bureau of DENR dated August 31, 2012 .

No different

The report said proper garbage segregation is now strictly practiced in the city while waste is piling up in Inayawan because of a lack of haulers.

Cabrera said her staff visited the site last Sept. 1 and found that composting beds which they earlier installed were rarely used.

“If a significant volume of mixed solid waste generated daily remain in the landfill, this landfill may be no different from dumpsites that have been banned seven years after the effectivity of RA 9003 in the year 2000,” Cabrera told the council.

Cabrera said Cebu City has to reassess its approach to solid waste management. It also has to look into the welfare of about 500 landfill waste pickers, one of the aspects to be incorporated in a landfill closure plan.

She said “nothing short of a closure plan will make the city compliant in closure procedures of landfills.” “This closure plan shall include an assessment of the present condition of the landfill, recommend proposed post-closure land use, including the required physical infrastructure for the landfill’s post-closure management,” Cabrera said in her speech. The closure plan has been discussed in several meetings. It was the subject of a multi-stakeholders strategic planning workshop in June 3 and 4, 2011 and a public hearing on October 3, 2012 wherein the council discussed a waste-to-energy proposal from Greenergy Solutions, Inc. /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters