Despite complaints from those located near the George Town Landfill, the burning of vegetation at the dump will continue until the eradication of the Pink Hibiscus Mealybug.
Officials say burning of vegetation will continue at the George Town Landfill until the deadly Pink Hibiscus Mealybug is eradicated. Photo: File |
Cabinet Minister Arden McLean said last week there was no choice in the matter.
‘We cannot take a chance of processing [PHM infected vegetation] in any other manner,’ Mr. McLean said. ‘The Pink Hibiscus Mealybug could spread otherwise.’
Mr. McLean said he was aware of the complaints about the burning.
‘We’re asking the public to be a little patient.’
However, the public might have to be patient a long time because the burning will continue indefinitely.
‘We will forever have to [burn vegetation] as long as the mealybug is in Cayman,’ Mr. McLean said. ‘Hopefully, it won’t be much longer.’
One of the complaints about the burning was made by the newly opened Cayman International School, which is located less than one mile north of the landfill in the Camana Bay development.
Principal Greg Hedger said the smoke has been an issue at the school about a half-dozen time since it opened in September.
‘It only happens when the wind shifts a certain way,’ Mr. Hedger said.
Usually, the people at the school can only smell the smoke, which Mr. Hedger said smelled like a campfire.
One time, however, the smoke was thick enough be been seen at the school, and another time ash was falling at the school.
‘We had a couple of [student’s] parents complaining last week,’ Mr. Hedger said.
Mr. McLean said last Friday that the smoke would be a lot worse if the Department of Environmental Health were not using an air curtain burner.
‘Air curtain burners put out less than 10 per cent of the smoke of what it would have been, had we had to burn [the vegetation] out in the open,’ he said. ‘That is the efficiency of the air curtain burner.’
Mr. McLean said the DoEH was burning about 450 cubic yards of vegetation per day, which was a considerable amount of material.
Although the burning must continue, Mr. McLean said the DoEH was going to try to burn the material at a different time so that it did not impact residents as much.
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