San Nicolas pushes interim solution to landfill problem

In a continued to effort to address Tinian’s solid waste management issue, Tinian Mayor Joey P. San Nicolas convened the second stakeholders meeting at the Office of the Governor on Wednesday to give an update on the status of the transfer station and to push for an interim solution to cap the non-compliant municipal dump, which currently sits on public lands leased to the Alter City Group.

The mayor invited representatives of various agencies whose cooperation and support are needed to be able to fast-track the implementation of his proposed interim solution as well as representatives of Bridge Investment Group and the Alter City Group, whose proposed development would increase the amount of waste generated on the island of Tinian.

“We are well on our way to building a transfer station with the assistance of the [Capital Improvement Project] office. In the meantime, where we plan to temporarily stage and sort our trash while the transfer station is being built requires CRM [Coastal Resources Management] approval, ensuring compliance with [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] requirements, temporary designation of public lands from [the Department of Public Lands] to the municipality to stage and sort specific types of waste, and [Department of Public Works’] support through designation of solid waste management funds for the transfer of waste to the Saipan landfill,” said San Nicolas.

“The reason for calling for the second stakeholder meeting is to bring all regulatory agencies and affected parties together to have a meeting of the minds about how we can work together and move this project forward for the benefit of our community.”

San Nicolas proposes to use the old MDC maintenance and repair building on Tinian to temporarily sort and process for shipment of waste.

“This site is ideal because there is a large butler building there with a concrete floor which requires minimal amount to renovate. This concrete floored building is essential to meeting CRM requirements that the waste be properly contained and that seepage does not contaminate the ground.”

The mayor also stated that for this interim solution to be successful, the Tinian community must be aggressively educated as to how to properly sort and dispose household waste to the temporary staging area as well as separating recyclables, green waste and household hazardous waste.

“We will launch an aggressive community awareness program as to how the community can all pitch in to make this work. We need them to be involved to make it work seamlessly. We need to address this issue to be able to move any of our developments forward.”

Members of the Tinian legislative delegation expressed their full support of the mayor’s interim solution and pledged to work with the mayor to implement the interim action plan.