By Tamica Garnett
MANAGEMENT of the Haags Bosch Landfill in Eccles said that expected doubling of waste from oil production will not pose any big challenge for the facility.

“The waste that they dispose at the site presently, during this drilling phase, is about 1.5 per-cent of the total waste we receive at the site. When they start the production, they said it will double, so it will be about three per cent of the waste we receive at the site. But of course as more production facilities come on board it will increase,” explained Gordon Gilkes, Head of the Ministry of Communities (MoC) Sanitation Management Unit (SMU).
A team from the Ministry of Communities (MoC) Sanitation Management Unit (SMU), last month met with executives of Exxon Mobil to map out the expected amount and type of waste that the company anticipates. “We met with them, to brief them on some of the things on where we are on the construction of Cell Two [of Haags Bosch] and what we expect from them. They would’ve given a list of the waste and quantities. They gave us estimation. But we have enough landfill area on site to accept the waste,” Gilkes noted.
Haags Bosch is currently Guyana’s only landfill. It began taking waste in 2011 with an estimated life span of 25 – 28 years. The entire facility covers some 150 acres, of which 64 acres go towards the cells for the storage of the waste.

“The footprint of the landfill is 64 acres, with four cells; each cell being 16 [acres], so far we only used one; by January we will move to Cell Two,” Gilkes conveyed.
Cell Two was estimated to run for 10 years.

Since its commencement, the management of the landfill has implemented measures such as waste diversion, aimed at extending the life of the landfill. However, this is being counteracted by continually increasing intake rate at the landfill.

The landfill was designed around 2004 with an estimated intake of 250 tonnes of waste per day, however, the site is currently receiving in excess of 400 tonnes per day.
The expected waste anticipated to be disposed at the landfill from the oil and gas when production begins includes wood from the crates that the company will use in the importation of commodities, as well as drilling mud.

“What we’re going to do is designate a wood area for these things. We will also designate an area for the disposal of drilling mud. The discharged drilling mud will be treated first; once treated, it could be used as daily cover for the landfill,” Gilkes said.
Exxon will be responsible for the treatment of any hazardous waste before it can be dumped, while there will also be some amount of waste that the company will have to ship out of the country because the landfill does not deal with that.

“The hazardous waste they will be treating before it comes to the landfill; for those products they would have to submit the TCLP test results to ensure the material is safe. That will give assurance that the hazard from the waste has been removed,” Gilkes explained.

TCLP stands for toxicity characteristic leaching procedure; the test entails a sample being tested to determine if a waste is characteristically hazardous.

The EPA will also have a role to play in ensuring that Exxon and other oil production companies are handling their waste appropriately and all that needs to be done is.
“The electronic waste, they wouldn’t be disposing at the site. That they will export to some other facility because we can’t deal with electronic waste, it is deemed hazardous. However, for them to export the electronic waste they have to collaborate with the EPA under the Basel Convention,” Gilkes said.

Gilkes is chairman of a joint committee of the MoC and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is currently assessing the state of landfills countrywide, to establish respective landfills in regions countrywide and thus ease the burden on Haags Bosch.