BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) recently issued the required certificate of non-coverage to the local government allowing the use of a one hectare portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm as the city’s temporary transfer station for the hauling of its residual waste to the Urdaneta sanitary landfill.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan expressed his gratitude to the unrelenting and uncompromising support being shown by the EMB-CAR officials and personnel, especially in extending the needed technical assistance for the eventual determination of the permanent solution to the city’s garbage disposal woes.
Under the CNC, the local government is allowed to use the Dairy Farm property as its temporary transfer station, provided that, the no touch ground of the residual waste should be strictly observed. If there will be residual waste that will be left in the transfer station, it should not be left on the ground for over 24 hours to prevent the generation of obnoxious odor that will affect the people living in the surrounding areas.
Earlier, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol granted the request of Mayor Domogan to temporarily use the 1-hectare portion of the Baguio Dairy Farm situated along Marcos highway as its transfer station for the hauling of the city’s residual waste to the Urdaneta landfill after a La Trinidad-based court ordered the closure of the hauler’s transfer station located in Lamtang, Puguis, La Trinidad, Benguet.
“We are elated that we were able to perfect the required documents from the concerned government agencies for the temporary use of a portion of the Dairy Farm as our transfer station for the hauling of our residual waste outside the city. We are also grateful to the whole DA family for their immediate action on our request to temporarily use a portion of their property for the said purpose,” Domogan stressed.
He assured the residents living within the vicinity of the temporary transfer station that the local government, in coordination with the DA and EMB regional offices, is doing its best to address issues on the too much noise and the obnoxious odor emanating from the area.
According to him, to prevent the residual waste from piling up in the transfer station, the city’s garbage trucks collecting garbage in the different barangays will have to wait for some time in their designated collection points while awaiting the trucks of the hauler to be available in the staging area.
On the other hand, he directed the General Services Office to coordinate with the junk shop owners to ensure that the generated recyclable materials will be immediately taken from the garbage trucks to help lessen the volume of garbage being hauled out of the city.
Domogan emphasized the local government is relentless in its effort to find the appropriate permanent solution to the existing garbage disposal problems that had hounded the city for over a decade now to contribute in efforts to significantly reduce the huge amount of public funds being used purposely for hauling.
While there is no identified permanent solution to the garbage disposal woes, he explained that hauling remains to be the best option to prevent the occurrence of garbage crisis in the city in the future.
By Dexter A. See
