BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan disclosed that the city’s garbage hauler is currently developing a portion of his 5,000-squater meter property along Marcos highway to serve as the new staging area of rhe generated residual waste in the city before it will be transported to the sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.
The local chief executive claimed the local government and the hauler are aware of the prescribed deadline by a local court in Benguet in which the garbage transfer station in Puguis, La Trinidad, Benguet should be closed that is why the hauler is working double time to develop his property to serve as the new transfer station while the city is trying to work out the realization of a permanent solution to the garbage disposal problem that will result to the stoppage of the expensive hauling of waste outside the city.
“We continue to be aggressive in finding lasting solutions to our garbage disposal problems that is why we are setting our sights to the conversion of the former Antamok open pit site to a waste-to-energy facility which will put an end to the expensive hauling of garbage to the sanitary landfill in Tarlac,” Domogan stressed.
He added the construction of Itogon’s temporary residual containment area within a portion of the Antamok open pit site is now underway that is why the city is just awaiting the latest developments while awaiting the finalization of the agreement between Benguet Corporation’s partner in the conversion of the open pit area to a waste-to-energy facility and the technology provider for the said renewable energy source.
Earlier, the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of La Trinidad allowed the operation of the garbage haler’s transfer station in Puguis until December 22, 2017 to allow MA Camilo Trucking and Freight Services the chance to relocate the transfer station to another area after finding merit to the complaints of the affected residents on the alleged pollution caused by the residual waste being transferred to the trucks of the hauler for the transport of the residual waste to the Tarlac sanitary landfill.
Domogan said the city’s garbage hauler is doing his best to develop his property that will serve as a temporary transfer station of the residual waste collected from the different barangays before it will be hauled out of the city while awaiting the developments of the proposed Antamok waste-to-energy facility.
For over nine years, the local government was able to spend at least P1 billion for the continuous hauling of garbage from the city to the various sanitary landfills in Pangasinan and Tarlac to prevent the occurrence of a garbage crisis in the city which might ruin its identity as one of the preferred destinations in the country.
He explained that while the Antamok waste-to-energy facility is still in the drawing board and the proposed Sto. Tomas landfill is still being cleared from claimants and for the road system to be in place, the most feasible mode of disposing the city’s residual waste is through the hauling of waste outside the city to prevent the generated waste from piling up in the transfer station and the pick up points in the different barangays.
BC’s partner, Goldrich Natural Exploration and Development corporation, is still selecting its technology provider for the proposed waste-to-energy plant in the Antamok open pit site. /By Dexter A. See
