NSWMA to transfer waste from Church Corner disposal site to Riverton

By Halshane Burke    

 

The National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) is to begin transferring waste from the Church Corner disposal site in St. Thomas to Riverton in St. Andrew.

 

Dramaine Jones, Regional Operations Manager for MPM Waste Management, made the commitment during Thursday's monthly meeting of the St. Thomas Municipal Corporation.

 

Mr. Jones said the government, through an enterprise committee, is working on an overall waste management plan to ensure proper disposal.

 

He said the Church Corner disposal site has been a sore point for the parish for several years. 

 

"What we have looked at is to see how best we can manage the disposal site while keeping St. Thomas clean. So we have looked to see how best we can ease the burden, we have looked at seeing how best we can remove the waste. So a project will be started in terms of removing the waste from the disposal site in Church Corner to the Riverton disposal site."

 

Mr. Jones said this will be done frequently to keep the area manageable. 

 

"We want to more use the St. Thomas site as a transfer point - so store the waste there and then send it on into Kingston. But for now, we are removing approximately 500 loads to ensure that we can continue, and then in the new budget we will look to identify funding to see how best we can move more. And this is all in the interim until our overall plan is identified by the enterprise committee," he explained. 

 

Some councilors are doubting the feasibility of the planned removal of 500 truckloads of waste.

 

Councilor Hubert Williams pointed to the fact that the first planned removal of 400 truckloads was a failure as only about 40 truckloads were removed.