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Guam fined for missing landfill deadline

Release Date: 02/13/2006
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711

(02/13/06) HONOLULU -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently fined the Guam Department of Public Works $2,000 for missing the deadline to submit plans and a permit application for the island’s new municipal solid waste landfill.

By February 2006, the department needed:

· to submit a draft final plan for the design, construction, and operation for the new landfill;
· a permit application to the Guam EPA for the new landfill; and
· a draft wetland mitigation plan.

“We are disappointed that DPW missed this important and achievable step in the process to build a new landfill,” said Alexis Strauss, the EPA’s director for water programs in the Pacific Southwest region. “EPA will continue to oversee the department's obligations to ensure compliance with the consent decree.”

The EPA is assessing $250 for each day since Feb. 6 that the plans and application are not submitted. However, the penalty will continue to accrue at a rate of $250 per day for the first 30 days of violation, $500 per day for the following 30 days, and $1,000 per day for each day thereafter, until DPW submits the documents.

The February 2004 consent decree sought to address the public health and environmental issues associated with the over-capacity, out-of-compliance dump. The Ordot Dump has a long history of illegal leachate discharges into the Lonfit River, fires, and public complaints about odors, rats, and mosquitoes.

The consent decree also includes deadlines for designing the closure of Ordot and developing a financial plan to pay for the improvements.

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