Irisan rehab slows down

Saturday, February 11, 2012

THE 10-year rehabilitation program of the decommissioned Irisan dumpsite suffered a slowdown after the National Government failed to give the needed budget for the project.

This was observed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-MGB) when it conducted two observations at the decommissioned dump last month.

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DENR-EMB officer-in-charge Nestor Donaal, in an interview, said they went to the dumpsite to observe and monitor the City Government’s implementation of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

Donaal said the 10-year closure program of the Irisan dumpsite started in 2008 when the city stopped using the area as a landfill with Mayor Mauricio Domogan announcing the site’s conversion as a park after 10 years.

The environment official said part of the 15,000 inert trash which spilled over after the collapse of the Irisan retaining wall August last year are now being used by the City Government to stabilize the slope of the more than 20-year-old dumpsite.

He said the City Government suffered a slowdown in its current efforts to rehabilitate the dumpsite after the P120 million requested by the city from the Department of Public Works and Highways for the rehabilitation of Irisan was not given and instead diverted to typhoon-affected areas in Mindanao.

But he said the city is doing its best to provide funds for the continued rehabilitation of the dumpsite.

He, however, backed the City Government’s stand that the continued operation of the Environmental Recycling System (ERS) does not constitute dumping nor transfer and sorting which was prohibited recently with the issuance of the Temporary Environmental Protection Order.

He added the ERS is only processing the biodegradable wastes resulting to the reduction of the 230 tons of garbage collected daily by the city.

City officials also reported to the EMB the use of the Irisan Limekiln, a city-owned property, as a prospect transfer and sorting station which will be the staging area for the residual wastes which will be hauled off to a private sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.

Other environmental impacts of the dumpsite is being monitored by his team, Donaal said, but the ERS facility is still exempted from conducting and Environmental Impact Survey (EIS).

He said this is because the ERS only processes around 40 tons of garbage in a day, exempting them from conducting an EIS.

Meanwhile, the mayor stressed the city has already replied to the Writ of Kalikasan petition, explaining the City Government’s side in the complaints of Tuba residents that the city is still dumping garbage in Irisan.