Mechanical and plumbing works on the new Pockwood Pond incinerator are complete, leaving only the electrical work before the commissioning process can begin, Petrona Davies, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Development, said today.
Ms. Davies said the electrical works should be done this week, and that thereafter the incinerator should be operating “very shortly.”
Earlier this year, Health and Social Development Minister Dancia Penn announced that she expected the 100-tonne-per-day incinerator to be completed by the end of April.
Plans to acquire the new incinerator date back to 2001. At the time, Solid Waste Department officials said the existing incinerator received seven more tonnes of trash per day than it could handle, and the amount was expected to increase.
And increase it did. In 2009, department statistics showed the facility was receiving an average of 93 tonnes per day, but the incinerator can only handle about 40 tonnes per day. The excess trash has been disposed of with open burning and has been blamed for spontaneous trash fires at Pockwood Pond.
See the May 5, 2011 edition for full coverage.