Citrus co. chief talks about pollution
On Tuesday we reported on a citrus spill which occurred in the North Stann Creek River for the second time in one month. Mayor of Dangriga, Cassian Nunez told News Five that although the Water and Sewage Authority exercised quick and effective damage control, the dead fish and lobsters retrieved from the river and the stench of rotten citrus would not be readily forgotten by Dangrigans. Today we spoke to the Chief Executive Officer of the citrus company, Del Oro Belize Limited, who denied that the first pollution incident was caused by Del Oro’s dumpsite, but took responsibility for the second one.
Randy Fleming, CEO, Del Oro Belize Limited
“First of all there was an alleged incident which took place back in June, in which no one was able to definitively establish whether the fish killed in Dangriga was directly attributable to anything up here at our peel dumpsite or not. I think that there were a number of other things that were taking place on the Stann Creek River, which could just have easily have been the main contributory factors. People concluded for themselves and more or less shall we say, it was a trial in public by innuendo that the entire problem of the fish kill was attributable to our citrus peel dump. However, that was not firmly established at the time and has not been firmly established in so far as that prior incident was concerned. Now the other day, which is to say on Monday, we had a localised rain, which was quite heavy, as people in the area can attest, and what we had done in the interim between early June and the present, as proposed by the Department of the Environment, was to shore up the levies which hold in the pond water, which is just below our peel dump.”
“There is a peel dumpsite which has existed for upwards of twenty years, and which the industry has slowly been putting peel into after it comes away from the processing factories. This has built up to the point that frankly the DOE and we agree it should be closed down or moved, we find it an alternate technology which is essentially what we are trying to do as best as we can. We are developing and an alternative.”
Faralee Gabourel
“You said that you all along with the Department of Environment agree that you should find an alternate solution, but in the meantime, what’s the short range solution for not using the dumpsite…?”
Randy Fleming
“Well the short range solution is that the processing season is over with so there is no additional peel to go into this site for the next few months. To mitigate the situation in addition, we are putting in a lot of additional drains. We have excavation equipment working up at the site now putting additional drains and to take away the storm water from the peel dumpsite itself and more particularly from the pond immediately below the peel dumpsite.”
Faralee Gabourel
“At this time is the Del Oro company considering financial compensation for the people of Dangriga?”
Randy Fleming
“No we see no reason for that and frankly we can’t afford it.”
Fleming also said that the company is in the process of digging new drains at the dumpsite, which he believes will greatly reduce the possibility of torrential rains causing another catastrophic spill.
