Puerto Rico dump closure on schedule

Tires, wood, and other debris extraction is ongoing at the Puerto Rico dump, as the closure project enters its fourth month since a notice-to-proceed was given in May to turn the regulation-violating dump site into a eco-friendly community park, said one of the officials overseeing the project yesterday.

“Project is on schedule,” Carl Castro, of the Office of the Governor’s Capital Improvement Projects Office, told Saipan Tribune.

Backhoes and other heavy equipment vehicles can be seen doing earthwork operations at the Puerto Rico dump that will be converted into a park. The $27-million federally funded dumpsite closure and park project is expected to be completed in November 2016. The groundbreaking kicked off last June. (Ferdie de la Torre)

The project site, located along Industrial Drive, is currently surrounded with “silt fencing,” Castro said. That’s to protect from further erosion and contaminants seeping outside the project footprint, he added.

Contractors have separated debris into tires and wood. According to Castro, they estimate plus or minus that 20,000 tires will be removed from the old dump.

The tires will be cut into fours, while the wood will be chipped.

Castro said this debris would be treated, sanitized, and cleaned and put back into the project site.

“The goal is to keep the elevation lower,” Castro said.

“The debris that we take out cannot go off the site,” he added, citing environmental regulations.

Castro noted that since May 18—when the project began—they have found more than 10 pieces of unexploded ordnance on the site.

Castro said they have a UXO officer to observe during construction, and assured that if what appears to be an unexploded ordnance is observed, the heavy equipment would stop and the Department of Public Safety is notified to remove the ordnance.

The dump closure project kicked off last June, with CNMI and Office of Insular Affairs officials attending a groundbreaking ceremony. Totaling $27 million in costs, the project—which took several administrations to get started—is reported to be the largest federally funded project in the CNMI.

Castro says the goal is to turn the site into a community passive park. He said the beauty of the project is to make the dump not only environmentally compliant but eco- and people-friendly.

The Puerto Rico dump was used for the disposal of nonhazardous solid waste between the years of 1950 and February 2003, after which the government stopped accepting waste and began operation off-site at the solid waste transfer station and at the Marpi landfill.