Ongoing issues with the accumulation of rubbish at a site in Bodden Town have led to court action, the Department of Environmental Health has confirmed.
It comes after complaints the area near the solar farm and quarry in Bodden Town is starting to look like a second landfill.
Tons of garbage, which includes large piles of empty beer bottles, numerous mattresses, construction material, cardboard boxes, old suitcases, plastic bags containing household trash, and even items that show the names of the people likely responsible for the fly-tipping, can be found at the location.
Director of the DEH Richard Simms said, “We are aware of the issue going on that location. We conducted investigations and [a suspect] has been charged and is now before the court.”
While the issue of illegal dump sites is far from unique to Bodden Town, the scale and extent of the accumulated trash heaps in the area is significant.
‘Thousands of dollars’ in clean-up costs
“The illegal dumping has been an ongoing problem that has progressively gotten worse,” explained Justin Wood, who owns the quarry near the area where the illegal dumping is occurring.
“The government used the site as a temporary facility to accept debris during the clean-up after Hurricane Ivan, and ever since some people would come and dump things.”
He added that, “Even after posting signs, and personally stopping some people, the problem persists and has gotten worse. Over the years it has cost me thousands of dollars cleaning it up. I’ve been working with DEH and will be installing cameras in order to have offenders prosecuted.”
There are currently no costs or fees associated with properly dropping refuse off at the George Town landfill, but, despite that, illegal dumping of rubbish is occuring at sites across Grand Cayman.
MP for the area Dwayne Seymour said the people responsible for illegally dumping the trash in this part of Bodden Town “are beyond nasty and irresponsible.”
Some of the piles of illegally dumped garbage were smoldering and on fire when the Compass visited the location on 19 Dec.
It was also clear from some of the partially-burnt piles, that there have been numerous fires at the site in the past. Chief Fire Officer Dwight (Randy) Rankin was not able to comment about whether the fire service had been called out to respond to fires in the area in recent months.
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