BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
Several violations were noted in the operation of the Bacolod City sanitary landfill in Brgy. Felisa by a team of inspectors from the Western Visayas Environmental Management Bureau, a copy of the report obtained by the DAILY STAR showed yesterday.
One of the violations noted was Section 48, Paragraph 4 of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 that prohibits the “causing or permitting the collection of the non-segregated garbage”.
Environmental monitoring officers Sheelamite Labrador, Vinci Raymundo, and Leo Singuay observed that the solid wastes being disposed at the active cell in the landfill were mostly mixed wastes.
The inspection was conducted on April 30 this year, as directed by Negros Occidental Provincial Management Unit head Junmar Tabita, whose help was sought earlier by Bacolod Councilor Carl Lopez, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Environment, to look into possible violations committed at the landfill.
With the current mixed solid waste disposal, the inspectors said it is estimated that the active cell would reach its full capacity in eight to 10 months.
The inspectors recommended that the Bacolod City government and its third party contractor be given a directive letter to submit progress reports on a monthly basis of the operation of the sanitary landfill.
Residents near the sanitary landfill and the neighboring barangays of Dulao in Bago City and Blumentritt in Murcia town have complained of the foul odor and emanating from it, the report said.
In fact, the residents said a fish kill had occurred reportedly because water coming from the landfill had reached the Kabura River in Brgy. Dulao*
