It’s a never-ending clash of views among residents of Arch Hall, Bennetts and surrounding areas in St Thomas and the Sanitation Service Authority.
Residents say their claims that septic tanks have been dumping at the Mangrove Pond Landfill site are not being properly investigated.
An SSA official has denied the claims, saying none of the deposits at the landlfill are hazardous.
The Eyewitness team visited the site on watch for the septic tanks and to talk to the residents.
The septic tank was perched on the edge of a hole at the Mangrove Pond Landfill. Its driver was busy dislodging something from the hose connected to the tank which was blocking the flow of the murky deposit. The smell flooded the confines of our vehicle.
After constant calls from residents living near the landfill blaming illegal dumping for the unbearable stench they are enduring, Eyewitness staked out the landfill.
Within recent times, the 26-year-old landfill had been handling more than 1 000 tons of garbage daily with 90 per cent of the island’s tyres being dumped there; at last count there were five million tyres.
Fires at the dump have also caused discomfort for residents but its unbearable stench across central and northern parts of the island has earned it the dubious designation Mount Stinkeroo.
In July last year the newly commissioned Sanitary Landfill Extension Cell 4, part of a $377 million Mangrove Pond Green Energy Complex, started operation at Vaucluse, St Thomas, and took some of the pressure off the landfill.
At the old facility there is provision for some liquids to be disposed of, including waste water from paint, laundry and kitchens. Raw sewage and oil are not permitted.
But Eileen Clarke, a resident of Arch Hall all her life and who has a home-based car business, does not believe the smells come from permissible liquids. From her home, she says, she sees when the septic tanks are offloading their contents.
“This is really ridiculous . . . . Easter weekend when you thought you would get a break, surprise! The smell is there,” she said.
Clarke has spoken to more than one person connected to the landfill but so far hasn’t received any relief. She explained that from early morning the septic tanks are there and soon after the district is filled with the stench. It embarrasses her when she has customers.
“Is it that they don’t care about us, that we don’t seem important. I know that I have to leave here,” she said.
Her despair is shared by Oscar Webb, a resident of more than 40 years.
“It [landfill] was to move and hasn’t,” the elderly man said. “It isn’t going to move after all these years.”
Webb, 80, said residents couldn’t move out and leave their homes so they stayed and put up with the smell.
“You get the smell almost every day . . . when there is a fire up there, a lot of houses are affected,” he said.
Back at the landfill, after the driver completes his offloading we examine the area and took pictures. Soon after, another truck pulls in.
The driver deposits a cloudy liquid and in response to our questions says it is laundry water from a hotel for which he has permission to dump. It has an odour.
We examine the area behind another truck that has made a deposit. There is an oil drum and debris in the black and smelly hole. Nearby there is an awful smell coming from a pit with oil that has settled on the top.
The superintendent at the site, Carl Boxhill, said there was no illegal dumping of liquids at the site and referred us to the head office of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA). Public relations officer Carl “Alff” Padmore said he intended for a team to visit and investigate the claims.
Padmore said that residents had been encouraged to call the SSA in case of odour problems.
Our team canvassed other residents, including Pastor Michael Alleng, who said that sometimes the awful stench invaded church services.
“That does not stop us. They are supposed to monitor and be sure what is being dumped . . . . The dump has always been an issue,” said the preacher who has lived in the area for 24 years.
A young man, preferring to be identified only as Gary, said that his complaints about the stench were always met with the insistence that it was water.
“You look up there and you can see the trucks. You complain but nothing comes out of it,” he said.
