Well it took the authorities over half a century to finally wake up and smell the fumes! It took a toxic blitz like the London fog or a Beijing situation to finally close the nation's largest dump after people's lives were threatened.A closed landfill continues to emit toxic gases for 50 years. The Beetham is more than a landfill; it's a hazardous waste site because industrial waste has been dumped unchecked over the decades, together with old batteries, tyres, plastics and used oil.
Landfill gas (LFG) consists primarily of greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide (70%), Methane (20%) and the rest a combination of hazardous air pollutants mainly ethane, carbon monoxide, toluene, propanol, xylene, hexane and hydrogen sulfide.LFG is compounded by fires that burn plastics, paper, textiles, treated wood and rubber products that spew a plethora of toxic fumes such as dioxins, mercury, lead and other contaminated dust.
These LFG pollutants, in combo with industrial and traffic fumes, create a toxic soup that can cause vicious headaches, skin irritation, coughing, asthma, irritability, sleeplessness and lethargy. Long term deleterious effects include birth defects, cardio-pulmonary diseases and many types of cancer. The landfill should be moved to a more remote location where population is not put at risk and should be lined with an impervious layer such as clay to prevent leaching of contaminants into ground water.
The Beetham landfill should be capped immediately either with clay or asphalt and recapped with top soil. Vent pipes should be installed to collect and flare the gas and better yet, a gas recovery system can be installed to recycle the gas for industrial use. The closed landfill can be landscaped as they do in North America–create open spaces, parks, playing fields and golf courses. Most of the cricket fields around New York are located on closed landfills.
This is also a wake-up call for the authorities to develop a national recycling programme so that landfill waste can be drastically reduced, hence preventing further degradation of the air, water and land.
Kenneth Santlal,
Air Quality Planner,
Boston, Massachusetts