GRRP: studies about leachate were clear

by Mindy Aguon

Guam - Guam Resource Recovery Partners isn't buying responses from the Guam Waterworks Authority and the federal receiver on their concerns regarding leachate being discharged into the ocean. GRRP has asked for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the discharge from the Inarajan Waste Water Treatment Plant that comes from the Layon Landfill. 

GRRP representative Dave Sablan maintains a dye trace study conducted in 2010 showed up in the ocean five days later.  Sablan says he doubts GWA has done anything to mitigate that since that study. "A lot of people are saying well the Layon Landfill was not built yet. It didn't matter. The Inarajan Waste Water Treatment Plant was already discharging into the ocean," Sablan told KUAM News. "It was already leaking before the Layon Landfill was completed, and yet they still delivered the leachate over there knowing that Gershman, Brickner & Bratton knowing that the leachate was leaking from the waste water treatment plant."

In response, GWA assistant general manager of compliance Paul Kemp says the 2010 dye trace study isn't valid since the dye was applied at a rate eleven times greater than the design capacity of the Inarajan Waste Water Treatment Plant. Kemp added that GWA did a certified test in August of last year using full QA/QC validation that certified that the plant does in fact operate as designed as a zero-discharge facility. 

In addition, GBB built a new sewer line to deliver the landfill leachate to the treatment plant's pump station at their own expense and monitoring is done regularly to ensure there is no negative impact on the performance of the plant.