Archive for March 12th, 2012

30% duty for GT dump

(CNS): Government would need to raise an additional $18-23 million to deal with the current landfill at the George Town location, Mark Scotland has claimed. The minister for health told his constituents in Bodden Town that to get that cash government would have to raise duty to as much as 30% to pay for it but the proposal being considered by Dart would not cost the public purse anything. As a crowd of demonstrators chanted and pushed home their opposition to the plan to open a new waste-management facility in Midland Acres, Scotland said the facility would not be a dump and accused the demonstrators and opposition of misleading the people and offering no alternative solutions.

Shouting to be heard above the demonstrators at a government public meeting on Thursday evening in the district, despite having a microphone, Scotland said, “No one is moving any dump to Bodden Town.” He said that the type of facility being proposed would have no impact on the surrounding area and people would not be able to see it.

Scotland said that the government did not have the resources to implement the solution that had been put forward, referring to the Wheelabrator bid which had been selected by the Central Tenders Committee following a request for proposals at the end of 2010.

“While it could be argued that the solution put forward could solve the problem, it could cost you, the Caymanian people, substantially more money than the proposal we are now considering for the facility … I didn’t make that up,” he added as the demonstrators grew louder.

“The study that the PPM did for the landfill said we would need to raise the fees and taxes on our people by an additional $18-23 million a year to be able to operate that facility at the George Town dump … Instead of import duties being at 22% we would have to raise important duties to over 30%,” he added. Scotland said the capital costs to tackle the dump at its current location would be over $100 million.

He said the public private partnership which was being proposed by the Dart group was a practical solution because it would not cost the people anything substantial. He said neither the PPM nor the current government could afford to do it without increasing fees on everyone. In the face of the chanting, he said the objectors had to stop misleading the public as the minister claimed the Dart proposal was not a ‘dump’ but a waste-management facility.

“Look at any urban city in the US today and see where the waste-management facilities are,” Scotland said as he suggested they were all near residential or commercial areas. “They have little impact on their surrounding areas.”

The minister said the new landfill would include recycling, composting, waste to energy and other methods. A technical review was currently being undertaken, which involved a wide range of government agencies, he revealed,  including the National Roads and Water authorities, planning, the Department of Environmental Health, the Petroleum Inspectorate, fire service and the Department of Environment.

He said the terms of reference for the Environmental Impact assessment were now being finalized but there was much work to be done on both the technical as well as the policy side as laws will need to be changed.

Scotland accused the opposition of not having the political will or the resources to address the problem but claimed the UDP did have the political courage to do what is right for the whole country, as the protestors in his constituency continued to chant.

Both Scotland and Dwayne Seymour, the government legislative members for Bodden Town, face an uphill battle to persuade their constituents that opening a new landfill and waste-management facility in their district is a positive move.

While Scotland made it clear that government was pressing ahead with the proposal for the relocation as part of the ForCayman Alliance, Seymour, who acted as master of ceremonies for the meeting on Thursday, emphasised that nothing was finalized as he acknowledged that he had not said very much publicly about the proposal. “That does not mean it has my consent,” he said as he skirted around offering his full support to the project. Seymour told his constituents that he believed the UDP government would get to the right solution to address the landfill problem.

The current proposal forms part of a deal which government is negotiating with the Dart Group. The private sector investor has proposed giving government land in Midland Acres in exchange for the land at the current dump. Dart has proposed developing a new modern waste facility there and then handing over the running to government. It will then remediate the current landfill and cap the mound to create a more aesthetic appearance which the developer has said would then enable it to begin work on the major residential elements of Camana Bay.

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