Baguio’s neighboring towns to benefit in ESL

BAGUIO City will let its neighboring towns in Benguet use its planned engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) in Itogon, Benguet once it is completed.

Baguio Mayor Mauricio Domogan said the municipalities of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba, and Tublay could use Baguio's planned waste facility to help them address their own garbage disposal problems.

These Benguet towns and Baguio together make up a grouping known in the Cordillera as BLISTT.

Baguio is set to establish a permanent ESL waste facility on a lot owned by mining firm Benguet Corp. through a Deed of Usufruct, a document that gives Baguio the right to use the property for free.

The planned facility will include a landfill, a centralized material recovery facility, an anaerobic digester, a special waste treatment plant, a medical and toxic waste treatment plant, a waste to energy plant, and two environmental recycling system (ERS) machines.

Baguio City infor-

mation officer Dexter See said Domogan had asked Benguet Corp. to increase the 24-hectare area it had previously agreed to cede to the city government, so the planned ESL could also accommodate Benguet towns with garbage problems.

See added the mining company had hinted agreeing to expand the lot area for the establishment of a proper ESL.

Baguio is already rushing the implementation of the waste facility, pending the approval of the Environmental Management Bureau in the Cordillera and the neighboring towns' consent.

While Baguio's ESL is not yet done, the city has a temporary waste transfer station near Tuba, Benguet, from which the garbage is hauled to a private sanitary landfill in Urdaneta, Pangasinan.

Previously, Baguio had hauled its garbage directly and all the way down to a private ESL facility in Capaz, Tarlac, for which it spent more than P1.2 billion in a span of more than 10 years.

The City of Pines is eyeing the establishment of its own ESL in a former open-pit mine of Benguet Corp. as a permanent solution to its garbage woes and its neighboring towns' as well.

Meanwhile, residents of one of the BLISTT towns, citing health reasons, were complaining about Baguio's temporary waste transfer station near Tuba town, while the city has not yet put up its planned ESL.

Tuba townsfolk even want Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol to take back his previous agreement to let Baguio use the agriculture department’s dairy farm near their town as a temporary dump.

Baguio City Councilor Elaine Sembrano was even appealing for the Tuba townsfolk's sympathy, considering their ties as the socalled BLISTT, while the city is working to establish its permanent ESL, which the mayor is willing to share with them, once completed.