Marpi incinerators?

I thoroughly enjoy Harry Blalock’s incisive and balanced morning interviews with various people and topics, particularly the continuing Wednesday morning coverage with newly elected Governor Fitial and his administration members. Allow me to address the interview with the governor and DPW’s Secretary Joe Demapan conducted on March 29.

One of the subjects discussed was the removal of the private management at Marpi landfill, the subsequent placement of that landfill under the Department of Public Works, and the possibility of an incinerator there as an alternative method to the municipal solid waste problem. Mr. Blalock also referred to a complete waste management company called Palingenesis.

Palingenesis Manufacturing Inc., based in Metro Manila, has a new and proven technology that simply did not exist two years ago. To put it simply, the Palingenesis Process is a low temperature waste conversion system that, after the organic and non-biodegradable (waste) materials are separated, proprietary liquid chemicals are added that renders that MSW inert and non-toxic. That inert and non-toxic substance is then converted into construction products such as hollow blocks, roof tiles, kerbstones, wall panels, decorative patio stones and drainage channels, to name just a few—with no threat to our community’s health—and generate revenue while getting rid of our garbage. And this would, in effect, create another viable business and potential export industry (the prefabrication of these systems manufactured in the CNMI’s “Free Trade Zone” for sales to Europe, Asia and the U.S.) for the islands.

The Palingenesis Process can perform two services for our community: take down and level the Puerto Rico Dump (and halt the leaching of contaminants and pollutants into the Tanapag lagoon and our beaches) and return the 20 acres of desecrated land to future generations; and extend the life of the Marpi landfill without having to request for an additional $10 million to dig more holes in the ground.

Here’s the threat of an incinerator at Marpi.

Presently, our air quality requirements fall under the U.S. EPA 1990 Clean Air Act, with changes made to the Act in 1997. It is to my understanding that the application of incinerators, though still part of the Act, are not being encouraged as a primary use, given its image of tall stacks bellowing black clouds into the atmosphere. No matter how the incinerators are technically dressed up, particulates will rise into our atmosphere. Ever see the wavy lines rising from the nozzle when you fill up gasoline at the pump? Smell the vapors? Even the soot from rubbish burned at home or the smoke from a barbecue at the beach contribute to pollution in our air. To make matters worse dust, pollen and other carcinogens from China—well-known for incinerators choking vast regions of their country in dense clouds fueled by coal—have been discovered in the CNMI, as well as in Hawaii. Get enough of these particulates in the atmosphere and it’ll cause regional haze. Get enough of that regional haze boiling together and you get smog. Trap this smog in our breathing space and we’ve got respiratory and other serious illnesses. And by virtue of our air currents, what is blown away today by the trade winds can and has returned within a short period of time.

Over the many years I have personally witnessed these temperature inversions of trapped, yellowish smog-like particulates over Saipan, especially in the morning. That should tell us we’re entering into another phase of “progress” and as such, should stand guard.

Allowing an incinerator to bellow combustion from the municipal solid waste at Marpi, or anywhere else in these islands, no matter if it is being “scrubbed” and the fuel used is the MSW itself, is no reason to allow the incinerator to pollute our air. And other than the leaching of contaminants and pollutants from the Puerto Rico dump (which causes the weekly “red-flagged beaches” report), what our economy and tourism industry doesn’t need is an added threat to our environment that will finally destroy the image of a clean air, pristine waters, tropical island paradise.

In the February and March 2006 issues of the Island Locator magazine, Sandie Lenton Forrest, managing director for Palngenesis, lucidly describes the numerous benefits of the Palingenesis Process and how significant and available its contribution to the CNMI will be.

Palingenesis offers our community—today—an alternative that will save money, generate more revenue, create more jobs—and not harm our environment.

Mahalo!

Holani Smith
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