Equipment is arriving and permits are being processed for a trash-baling transfer station to help close and cap St. Croix’s Anguilla landfill, V.I. Waste Management Authority Executive Director May Adams Cornwall said Friday at a regular meeting of WMA’s governing board.

The Federal Aviation Administration ordered the landfill closed because scavenging birds and smoke from burning debris were a potential hazard to planes. Once it stops accepting trash, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires capping of the landfill, monitoring for environmental contamination, testing for levels of methane and other gases produced by buried garbage, and installation of a gas-collection system.

Meanwhile, a transfer-and-processing station must be in place both to supply the power plant and to begin closing the landfill.
Once the transfer station is up and running, trash will be diverted from the landfill to the transfer station, where it will be shredded, baled, and wrapped. The bales will be used to help get the proper final elevation and slope of the landfill in accordance with the WMA’s landfill closure plan.

WMA’s board gave the go-ahead to begin planning and building the transfer station last October.

The baler is here, the wrapper is on its way and should arrive by Feb. 22 and the trash shredder should probably be here by the end of the month, Cornwall said.

"Then we will have all the basic equipment for the station ready on site," she said.

The landfill closure design requires a V.I. Coastal Zone Management permit. That application has been deemed complete and there will be a CZM public hearing on the permit on March 16 at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport, she said. The time is yet to be determined.

Meanwhile, a wetlands mitigation plan has been submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers. The FAA is waiting for the Army Corps permit before granting a lease for the property in question and the V.I. Port Authority will not allow construction to begin until that happens. So the work is awaiting the processing of these various permits and leases, she said.

"Once it starts, its about a six-month process, so we are looking at September or October. If all goes well and there are no more snags, we should be open by the end of the year," she said.

In other business, the board voted to approve its 2011-2015 capital improvement program calling for roughly $190.6 million in spending, with $117 .9 million for solid waste; $56.1 million for wastewater and $16.5 million for support services.

The capital improvement plan’s details are linked closely to federal compliance orders and schedules, Cornwall said. WMA has about $52 million available now for the projects, from the V.I. Public Finance Authority, the U.S. Department of Interior and EPA, but needs $140 million more to actually finance all the projects on its list. But the work cannot be done all at once, so Cornwall recommended approving the plan and prioritizing the projects, using the available resources first, while seeking new sources of funding for the projects down the road.

The board also approved payment of $53,000 to Mickey’s Construction for emergency replacement of a manhole in Williams Delight to allow V.I. Public Works to finish reconstructing the roadway.

Voting yea in both instances were: Dodson James, Stephen Jones Sr., J. Brion Morrisette and Llewellyn Reed. Absent were Winston Adams and Darryl Smalls.