Published: September 27, 2012
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V.I. Waste Management Authority Executive Director May Adams Cornwall, right, got authorization from the Board, including Board Secretary Dodson James, left, for over $5 million in spending.
ST. THOMAS - The V.I. Waste Management Authority Board on Wednesday approved a laundry list of contracts and expenditures worth more than $5 million, about $1.4 million of which is related to one contractor's work with the troubled Anguilla Landfill on St. Croix.
The board, which has only four members - V.I. Public Works Commissioner Darryl Smalls, Stephen Jones Sr., Dodson James and Winston Adams - unanimously approved two Anguilla-related payments.
One authorizes a retroactive payment of $727,973 to A9 Trucking Enterprises for landfill closure design engineering between January 2010 and May 2012. The company operated the Anguilla Landfill under a contract that spanned January 2006 to January 2010. The contract required A9 "to manage and operate the landfill in a manner to bring it into compliance according to Territorial and EPA requirements," according to an Waste Management Authority staff summary.
An addendum to the contract required the company to design a gas-collection and control system for the landfill, according to the summary. However, when the company submitted its plan, the Environmental Protection Agency required instead a complete closure plan for the Anguilla facility, including designing landfill slopes with bales produced at the St. Croix Transfer Station; drainage and erosion systems; a leachate collection and pump system; a flare station; and a landfill cover.
The company provided professional design services in accordance with the EPA requirements, but the contract expired before the plans could be completed, according to the staff summary.
The design work was 100 percent completed by May 31 and has since been approved by the EPA, according to the staff summary. The Waste Management Authority also has received the necessary coastal zone permits to begin closure construction, and neither the Federal Aviation Administration or the V.I. Port Authority had any objections to the plan, according to the staff summary.
The Anguilla Landfill sits on property owned by the Port Authority, which is overseen by the FAA. The FAA has required the closure of the Anguilla Landfill for decades and began withholding airport improvement funds to press the issue. The landfill is scheduled to be closed by 2020.
The other Anguilla-related contract amendment authorizes five, $142,000 monthly payments to A9 between June 1 and Oct. 31, for a total not to exceed $710,000. Under the contract, the company is required to accept baled and wrapped waste produced at the St. Croix Transfer Station and place it at the Anguilla site in accordance with an approved fill-progression plan.
"Negotiations are in progress to establish a contract to replace this interim agreement with a closure operations contract as the Authority moves closer toward closure of the Anguilla Landfill," a staff summary of the amendment reads.
Other contracts and expenditures approved Wednesday include:
- $1.1 million for several types of pumps and piping that already had been purchased in smaller increments.
- $762,096 to VIESCO to operate the Mangrove Lagoon Wastewater Treatment Plant on St. Thomas and the St. John Wastewater Treatment System between Oct. 1 and Jan. 15, 2013.
- A $498,500 contract with V.I. Recycling Company to remove scrap metal from the Susannaberg Transfer Station and to continue to operate the Waste Management Authority's Bovoni and Anguilla scrap metal sites.
- $492,365 in change orders on a $1.6 million contract with O'Reilly Plumbing and Construction to replace a major sewer line on St. Croix that connects the Fig Tree Pump Station to the Anguilla Wastewater Treatment Plant.
- $378,526 on a five-year, $455,893 contract with Paradise Waste to pick up trash bins for government agencies.
- A $294,040 contract with ARCADIS Consultants to analyze the Waste Management Authority's wastewater user fees between Sept. 1 and June 30, 2013.
- A $177,652 contract with InfraMetric to provide engineering services for a territorywide wastewater infrastructure survey.
- A $157,131 change order on a contract with Sanitas Partners V.I. for the design, construction and operation of the St. Croix Transfer Station.
- $120,748 to pay Virgin Islands Asphalt Products Corporation for paving the Peter's Rest Convenience Center.
- $66,198 to Pelle Service Center to provide on-call predictive and emergency services at the Fig Tree and LBJ Wastewater Pump Stations.
- $43,758 on a five-year, $1.8 million contract with Paradise Waste to conduct house-to-house trash collections on St. Croix.
- A $27,197 contract with Gershman, Brickner and Bratton for technical consulting services on the St. Croix Transfer Station.
- Contact reporter Lou Mattei at 714-9124 or email lmattei@dailynews.vi.
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