Aerial view of a portion of the Anguilla Landfill Photo Credit: ERNICE GILBERT/ VI CONSORTIUM
ST. CROIX — Three hundred tons of trash. That is how much solid waste is created on St. Croix on a daily basis.
The cost of transporting that waste off-island would be upwards of $280 per ton.
Do the math, and you quickly see that the roughly $3 million or more per month makes sending St. Croix’s solid waste to another jurisdiction untenable.
Waste management experts laid out the complicated history of the Anguilla landfill at a Tuesday public briefing, and discussed the future direction of the nearly exhausted solid waste disposal site.
Glenn Wallace of Oasis Consulting Services, a company retained by the V.I.Waste Management Authority to help manage the Anguilla site, said officials are looking toward a new landfill location on St. Croix.
VIWMA, following federal guidelines, is reviewing potential landfill locations. Environmental, public health and safety issues are driving any decision.
But knowledge of how the Anguilla Landfill evolved from a “dump” in the 1950s and 1960s will help the public understand where the future of solid waste management is taking the terrain in the coming years.
The consulting firm was not able to say when, exactly, the landfill would close, though it allowed that closure was near relative to how much more waste Anguilla could take. Once closed, the site will not be an eyesore; instead, it will be topped with waterproof synthetic material that resembles green grass. Rainwater captured by the topping would then settle in man-made ponds.
In tandem with closure preparations, the consulting firm has been looking at sites, with the determining factors that would either prohibit or clear the way for landfill use being ground faults, proximity to airports and other factors.
