City dump burns, sparking respiratory illnesses

TANEISHA DAVIDSON, Observer staff reporter Thursday, April 21, 2005

THE solid waste and disaster management agencies have been huddling over a plan to dampen the fire and contain the smoke spilling from the problem-plagued city landfill at Riverton City, as nearby communities inhaled burning garbage for a fourth day. A thick blanket of smoke, that burns the eyes and throat, now hovers above Riverton City and nearby communities of Duhaney Park, Patrick City, and others. Yesterday, the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) said the fire would burn for three more days. In the meantime, the residents of Riverton Meadows and elsewhere are complaining that the smoke has triggered some respiratory illnesses. "It affect my baby's eyes and nose and she have bronchitis so she can't go to school," said Sharon Brooks, a resident from Riverton Meadows. "A night time she bawl fi her eyes and a so me know seh the smoke affect her." Eugenie Newsome, a mother of five, said that her entire family including her husband is affected by the smoke. Her daughter who is asthmatic has to constantly use an inhaler and other medicines prescribed by a doctor. So does her husband. "My little girl start to blow short so I have to give her the Ventolin," she said. "My other children have cold, a fever and bleeding through the nose and them can't sleep at night because of the coughing due to the smoke." Newsome said a doctor explained to her that the nose bleeding occurred due to an allergy to the smoke. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in a statement urged residents in surrounding areas to monitor and observe all persons, especially children, who normally suffer from upper respiratory problems or breathing conditions such as asthma. "If ill-effects are being experienced, immediately contact the nearest health centre or private doctor," the ODPEM said. "If any emergency situations occurs immediately visit the nearest hospital. Persons are being asked to seek medical attention and not utilise home remedies." The public health agency was unaware of the situation, but said it would send a team to investigate when the Observer sought comment on the number of respiratory cases that have cropped up. Meantime, the solid waste agency said the fire at the landfill was deliberately set, and that it was working with the police to identify the persons responsible. The agency also advised that it has received funds from the local government ministry to address the situation. "We are working to extinguish the existing fire in the disposal site," said the NSWMA in a statement. "We anticipate, given the mechanisms being employed, that the nuisance of smoke should be reduced in another three days and we ask for the public's patience and indulgence. Signs of improvement are already being seen," it claimed. Additionally, the authority said it will be doing extensive remedial work aimed at covering the entire tipping face once the blaze has been extinguished. However, the residents charge that the NSWMA should have made efforts to extinguish the fire from the onset. Cynthia Headly, who has six children, said her daughter, who is a sickler, has not attended school for a few days because she has a cough and a fever. When the Observer visited Riverton Meadows, the community was quiet and a handful of residents sat outside their houses or at shops in the community. The thick and drifting grey smoke could be seen in the Plantation Heights and Washington Boulevard areas and the atmosphere was tainted with smoke. Still, some residents claim that they were not affected by the smoke due to their close proximity to the landfill. They surmised that the smoke drifts over them into communities that are further away. Some complained, however, that the smoke blackened their furniture and clothes. - davidsont@jamaicaobserver.com

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/79124_City-dump-burns--sparking-respiratory-illnesses#ixzz2Ce9mfjCd

Riverton fire had negative impact on air quality, report shows

4:05 am, Wed April 4, 2012

A report on the effects of the smoke nuisance from the recent fire at the Riverton Disposal site in Kingston has concluded that the blaze had a significant negative impact on air quality in Kingston and St Andrew and Portmore in St Catherine. The fire which blazed between February 6 and 13 left many residents in affected communities battling a smoke nuisance for days. The 18 page document which was the collaborative effort of the Ministries of Health and Land and Environment, as well as the National Environment and Planning Agency, NEPA revealed particulate matter levels within a one kilometre radius of the dump showing very high risk. Among the communities categorised in the region of very high risk were Riverton Meadows, Seaview Gardens and sections of Spanish Town Road. At distances of up to a 2 kilometre radius, the air quality with respect to the particulate matter levels was said to be high risk. Some of the communities categorised within the region of high risk were Washington Gardens and sections of Duhaney Park. Chief Executive Officer at NEPA Peter Knight described the findings as significant The report also made several recommendations for the prevention of a recurrence of the environmental pollution resulting from the Riverton fire. Chief among them is for the National Solid Waste Management Authority, NSWMA to improve its management at all solid waste disposal sites to prevent a reocurrence of major fires. It's also recommending that permanent air monitoring sites should be installed by the NSWMA around the Riverton Disposal Site. It also says all air quality monitoring response sites established should continue for at least a year. Meanwhile Dr Sonia Copeland, the Director of Disease Prevention and Control in the Health Ministry says the impact and long term effects of the fire on human health could have been far greater had it taken longer to deal with the nuisance.

Riverton health hazard

published: Wednesday | September 1, 2004

THE DISPUTE between the National Solid Waste Management Authority and the Riverton Meadows Trucking and Disposal Co-operative may have been settled for now but the effects are still being felt by hapless citizens who happen to live within range of wind-blown smoke from the authority's burning landfill at Riverton City in east St. Andrew, near the city's western limits.

Large sections of the Corporate Area of Kingston and St. Andrew, especially the western reaches, and the municipality of Portmore, south and south-eastern St. Catherine, have been waking up for the last several mornings, shrouded in smoke. The smoke is so thick at times that citizens say they get the impression that they are in a smoke-filled room, victims of deadly, inescapable passive smoke. And before the sun begins to climb, even the lovely hills which form a backdrop to sections of Kingston, are blanketed by the smoke. Pity the hundreds of unfortunate people, with asthma and other respiratory ailments, who have to go through this daily and seemingly with no end in sight. Pity, too, the frail infants who are at risk from what should be their friendly, healthful natural environment. Jamaica is already beset by problems of heavy rates of deforestation; coastal waters polluted by industrial waste, sewage, and oil spills; damage to coral reefs; air pollution in Kingston resulting from vehicle emissions. And, of course, the Government will boast that it is party to environmental agreements and treaties covering biodiversity, climate change, desertification, endangered species, hazardous wastes, marine dumping, marine life conservation, ozone layer protection, ship pollution and wetlands, and that the International Seabed Authority has its headquarters in Jamaica. Our representatives have been to every global environmental conference from Brazil to Kyoto, Japan. And, of course, we are rightly proud of our own National Environment and Planning Agency. But with all of this, citizens seemingly bereft of any environmental protection, are being put at risk daily by having no recourse but to breathe air polluted by smoke from the NSWMA's landfill which mysteriously erupted in flames during the dispute between the authority and the co-operative. The stark effect is that thousands of citizens are exposed to the equivalent of being forced to smoke several harmful cigarettes a day. Whatever is happening at the Riverton City landfill is as disgraceful as it is unacceptable. It is a hazard exposing hundreds of citizens to the risk from the deadly pall that hangs over sections of the city, of suffering serious harm from the smoke rising there. This shouldn't be accepted like water having passed under a bridge. All efforts should be made to put out those dangerous fires.

ODPEM monitoring air quality due to fire at Riverton City Landfill

4:41 pm, Fri February 10, 2012

Smoke over city from Riverton City landfill

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, ODPEM, is closely monitoring the air quality in the corporate area, due to the Riverton Landfill fire. Concern is growing about the city's air quality since the fire started on Tuesday. Director General of ODPEM, Ronald Jackson, explains that mobile monitoring stations will now be used to gather more readings. He said the ODPEM will determine its next move based on the air quality. Mr. Jackson also noted that they are looking at putting a comprehensive early-warning system for incidents such as these. Several agencies including the Jamaica Defence Force, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the National Water Commission, the National Works Agency, the Ministry of Health and the National Fire Brigade are involved in efforts to put out the fire and minimise loss.

Strong action needed to solve Jamaicas solid waste management problems

A recent fire at the Riverton City dump in Jamaica has focussed media

attention on the issue of sound solid waste management. Local environmentalists are advocating for recycling to become a bigger part of the Jamaican solid waste management strategy: RECYCLING, coupled with other measures such as a comprehensive waste-to-energy project, and composting not relocation are said to be key to alleviating woes over the Riverton City dump, where countless fires over the years have cost the country millions of dollars to put out.

Such is the argument of two members of Jamaicas environmental lobby, who insist that for too long the island has sidestepped recycling in favour of throwing away everincreasing quantities of garbage, notably plastics, metal and, in more recent times, electronic waste, such as computers and cellphones.

The first thing we should do is reduce the amount of garbage that goes there *to Riverton] by having recycling. There should be no plastics going there and no paper going there and, of course, no metal, Peter Espeut, former director of the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation, told Environment Watch. Ultimately, if we go seriously into reprocessing, recycling, then there will be hardly anything going to Riverton.

Wendy Lee, executive director for Northern Jamaica Conservation Association (NJCA), shared Espeuts views.

Riverton and all the other dumps around the country are a symptom of our failure to manage waste in general [and] principall y to reduce, separate, recycle. We are an island, we just cant keep throwing everything on to a dump, she told Environment Watch. So basically, if people were more aware, if there was a framework where people knew where to dispose of various things, that would be a starting point. At least people who want to do the right thing would have the right option.

Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer for the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), has said, however, that priority must be given to finding a new site for the Riverton City dump.

The situation there is so awful that I think it is going to be very difficult to correct on site. Riverton is not lined so there can be contamination of ground water. Remember, too, that it is located near to the Duhaney River and that is not ideal either. The IDB (Inter-America Development Bank) project envisaged the expansion of Riverton; I dont tell you that is not feasible, but it is going to take some very hard decisions and some very strong action, she told Environment Wat ch.

McCaulay revealed earlier this month that the IDB had, in 2007, cancelled the bulk of an $11-million loan to the island after discovering waste, mismanagement and incompetence in the implementation of a programme to improve conditions at Riverton City and other landfills across the island.

The broad objectives were to upgrade Riverton and establish a proper legal and institutional regulatory system for solid waste, she said in an Observer article published on February 15, while the authorities did battle with the most recent fire, which is estimated to have cost the country just under $60 million.

There was also to be the preparation of an islandwide programme for waste minimisation, collection and disposal. The loan was for US$11.5 million, with the total cost of the project being US$16.5 million. The project was to be carried out over a four-year period. This was extended for three more years and the project was finally closed in January 2007. Only US$3.82 million had been disbursed and the bank cancelled US$7.68 million, McCaulay added.

Apart from the operational factors directly related to the NSWMA, social practices also impinge on the efficiency of waste management. For example, there is negligible separation of solid waste which often has recyclable and re-useable (valuable) materials mixed with other types of garbage. The crushing together of garbage in this manner has the potential for hazardous materials to get dispersed through thousands of tonnes of garbage at the landfill site.

She continues to question why that project failed.