WASTE PROBLEMS EXPECTED TO WORSEN

THE garbage problem in Pangasinan is expected to further deteriorate following the closure on March 5 of the Urdaneta Sanitary Landfill (USFL) in Barangay Catablan for various violations of environmental laws.

Environmental Management Bureau Regional Director Dorica Naz-Hipe and Provincial  Environment and Natural Resources Officer Maximo Soriano Jr. served and implemented the closure order.

DENR  Undersecretary Benny Antiporda issued the cease and desist order (CDO) for USLF for its failure to address its violations of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, the Philippine Clean Water Act, and P.D. 1586 entitled “Establishing  Environmental Impact Statement System Including Other Environmental Related Measures and other Purposes”.

Antiporda met with Urdaneta Mayor Julio Parayno III last January 7 this year and advised him on the need to rehabilitate the SLF. The city government was reportedly given until February to correct the violations but it did not act on the matter.

With no visible corrections on the violations, Antiporda issued the CDO finally stopping the operations of the USLF.

“We want to send a strong message to all those who take reminders for granted, Antiportda said in a dig to the Urdaneta LGU, as he assured the public that DENR will remain vigilant to protect the Filipino people and the country’s environment.

The CDO “prohibits the disposal of any form of solid waste into the facility and the discharge of its waste water to any land until the remedial measures specified are implemented.”

Established as the first engineered sanitary landfill in Pangasinan in 2011, during the administration of then Mayor Amadeo Perez Jr, the USLF is situated on an 18,000 square meter land in Barangay Catablan to accommodate wastes generated initially from households, factories and markets of the city.

In a bid to recover its investments that came from a loan of the city with Land Bank of the Philippines, the local government allowed adjacent towns to dispose of their garbage into the facility for a fee, among them  Sta. Barbara, Pozorrubio, Binmaley, Dagupan. Baguio City and Nueva Ecija also used USFL

The closure of the USFL will compel the user towns to bring their wastes to the sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.

The closure of the USLF was witnessed by EMB and CENRO officers in Pangasinan.
Dagupan City attempted to put up its own engineered sanitary landfill on a less than 30 hectares of land it bought in Barangay Awai, San Jacinto but this was aborted as the land was the subject of a land dispute between its former owner and the tenants before the Department of Agrarian Reform Arbitration Board. (Leonardo Micua/Eva Visperas)

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