I hear both terms, apropos Parkietenbos dump, so I asked the experts what they mean:
Capping is the isolation of whatever’s in the landfill from being exposed. All landfills are capped at the end of their lives. Which means they are covered, with a final layer, destined to become parks and recreation areas. I saw a good documentary about Staten Island which had the largest dump in the world, it was eventually capped and turned it into a green area, serving its people in many ways.
Check out Fresh Kills Landfill on YouTube.
Of course, they have taken measures before the final layer was applied, to allow the living, churning chemical soup in the belly of the heap to emit gasses to permissible exposure limits. The mess continue to have a second-hand life once capped, and special chimneys and tunnels are built into the mound to allow the venting of gases into the atmosphere.
Capping sounds great, we need more parks and green areas, but it is worrisome that if Parkietenbos is capped then chemicals buried underneath will find their way into the ocean, and contaminate our drinking water at WEB, our beer at Balashi. But I guess it’s already happening. Anthony Hagedoorn, Sail Tranquilo, documents it every day.
Vote for capping, you cover the shame up with a special carpet and it disappears from sight.
How about Mining, I asked?
Mining is remediation and/or removal of whatever is lying there, I was told. For it to be removed it has to be exposed again, which will cause great stinky nuisance to the surroundings. It is also dangerous, because its really a mystery what’s lying underneath, we don’t know what’s buried in the dump. And remember that most subterranean fires are extinguished because of oxygen deprivation, digging the mess back up exposes the hot material to air causing BIG fires.
Digging it up and taking it to San Nicholas to be dumped within the refinery walls?
It will be VERY difficult to mine Parkietenbos, not impossible, however IT WILL BE VERY expensive. There is barely anything usable left that can make money, in the waste. Aruba will hand over lots of cash for the so-called mining of the landfill.
Whomever does the mining will charge an arm and a leg since there are no records of what’s buried there and one has to be prepared for anything.
So, mining is costly, but yes, it will eliminate the dump and reduce the left-overs to manageable bales, just the way ECOTECH /ECOGAS already reduces and compacts our household waste.
As I already mentioned, there is an ongoing discussion about moving the dump to the defunct RDA. That’s a thought, it will provide employment to residents there. The refinery is a junk-yard already why not turn it into a dump?
I just read that Serlimar is buying new equipment, which means it is not going anywhere, it is here to stay, a poorly organized, inefficient, bureaucratic and non-productive government agency.
