USVI Delegation Meets with Officials of the British Virgin Islands to Address Solutions to Emissions from Tortola Dump Site

Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. said Friday that officials of his Administration met recently with representatives of the British Virgin Islands to discuss potential solutions to the long-standing problem of emissions which are generated by Pockwood Pond, a dump site in Tortola. “These emissions have been a source of complaints from residents of Coral Bay, St. John and now there are growing concerns about the effect on health, business, the environment and ecology in the territories.”

de Jongh said the U.S. Virgin Islands delegation was headed by DPNR Commissioner Robert Mathes and included: EPA Coordinator Jim Casey, Deputy Director for Caribbean Environment Protection Division of EPA Jose Font, DPNR Director of Environmental Protection Dr. Nadine Noorhassan, DPNR Director of Enforcement Austin Callwood, Chief of Resource Management for the V.I. National Park Service Rafe Boulon, Jr. and Sharon Coldren, President of the Coral Bay Community Council. David Edgecombe, Assistant to the Governor for External Affairs represented de Jongh at the meeting.

Coldren made a power-point presentation which highlighted the problems with the emissions which she said is a growing concern for members of the Coral Bay community. The BVI officials said they share the concerns that have been raised and are working to resolve the problems. They provided details about the emission problem and the steps they have taken to correct it. 

According to Clyde Lettsome, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources & Labour; the problem can be traced to an incinerator that can no longer adequately dispose of the amount of garbage generated in Tortola. It has a capacity of only 40 tons per day, which was more than adequate when it was installed over ten years ago. But the BVI now needs to burn up to 90 tons per day of waste on some days. They have bought and set up a new 100 tons per day capacity plant to work along with the existing plant. The emissions problem should be fixed when the new plant becomes fully operational in the second quarter of 2010. Additional wiring and final tests by the manufacturer remain to be done. The equipment, which includes scrubbers, is supplied by an American company and is set up to run in accordance with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines.

In the mean time, officials of the BVI said they will be more vigilant with the separation of garbage, removing tires and waste oil from the rest of the garbage at the central burning site. These are usually the cause of the ominous black smoke sometimes coming from the dump and should be disposed of separately, but some people manage to slip them by the inspection. Getting better control of this will help to reduce concerns about toxic waste. Assurances were given by the BVI that tests done regularly at the site show no unacceptable level of toxicity.

Rosalie Adams, Permanent Secretary, Premier’s Office, chaired the meeting and called for the development of a comprehensive collaboration on topics of environmental, climate-change and alternate energy. 

Other members of the BVI delegation included: Anslem Myers, Manager—Solid Waste Department; Greg Massicot, Clerk of Works Ministry of Health & Social Development; Miguel Smith, Incinerator Plant Manager and Najan Christopher, Assistant Secretary for External Affairs.

Audio of Remarks by David Edgecombe, Assistant to the Governor for External Affairs .mp3 (1 MB)

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