GEORGE NEWS - George Municipality is currently faced with formal 'mediation steps as part of a criminal justice process' for failing to comply with their landfill site permit.
This was confirmed in a terse one-sentence statement by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
After much prompting, George Municipality revealed that several, immediate steps are to be taken in order to address the managerial inefficiencies at the Old Airport Road dump site. See block for more information.
The latest transgressions were made public during an Eden District Council meeting held on Friday 29 April. The cat was set among the pigeons when, following a council meeting, Eden District Mayor Wessie van der Westhuizen said, "George Municipality has been taken to court because they do not comply with the rules of a landfill site. The Green Scorpions are onto them."
During an on-site inspection by the George Herald last week security officials at the gates waved everyone through without examining their vehicles, or making drivers fill in a security register. No officials were seen at the landfill site; and to all intent and purposes the public appear to be left to their own devices.
No direction was given to vehicles to keep rubble and green waste separated in any way. The general chaotic state of affairs seen in previous years, still prevail. The dump site has been officially closed to receiving general household waste for the last 11 years, and is only supposed to accept garden refuse and building rubble.
A bulldozer on a daily basis covers the landfill site with soil to keep odours at bay. Carcasses were until recently accepted by prior-arrangement. In 2014 the municipality handled between 2 500t and 3 000t of waste at a cost of R60-million at the transfer station, where after compaction, it is transported to the PetroSA regional landfill site. In 2015 steps were announced to improve the management of the George landfill site - after neighbouring businesses complained about the fumes caused by burning tyres.
A recycler's hut situated on the George Municipality's old dumpsite (which is officially closed to the public apart from rubble and garden waste) reveals the presence of desperately poor people randomly scouring the dump for recyclable matter. Bricks can fetch up to R1 each, said one woman who was happy that this will at least help to put food on her table.
Municipality's immediate remedial actions
"George Municipality is working closely with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) to ensure that we comply with the new regulations and legislation pertaining to landfill facilities."
"George Municipality is working closely with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEADP) to ensure that we comply with the new regulations and legislation pertaining to landfill facilities."
Municipal Spokesperson Chantel Edwards-Klose said among other measures, the following short-term steps are being implemented:
1. The office of the manager responsible for transfer station and landfill site will be relocated from town to the transfer station to ensure a hands on approach.
2. The security services are monitored on a regular basis by the law enforcement section of the municipality to ensure access control as well as execution of duties.
3. The damaged gates and boom will be repaired again to make it easier for access control.
4. The security service will again have an entrance register and ensure the waste that is not supposed to go onto the site does not enter the site.
5. There is a fulltime supervisor/machine operator and two 'pointers', who are in charge of the site and who direct the flow of traffic and point out where to offload waste.
6. At the transfer station there is also a fulltime foreman and senior workers responsible for the day-to-day running of the station.
"We are currently doing a scoping investigation regarding the establishment of a new green waste and composting facility in George in order to minimise the waste going to the PetroSA Waste Facility in Mossel Bay," Edwards-Klose further said.
The new regional waste facility in Mossel Bay is at an advanced stage of being established. There are, however, some matters that must first be addressed before the final completion of this facility. The current PetroSA Waste Facility was earmarked to be utilised until the end of this year, pending approval for a further extension of the use of the facility to the end of June 2017, she said.
ARTICLE: PAULINE LOURENS, GEORGE HERALD JOURNALIST
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