Second Creek still a dump
Despite being closed former refuse site continues to receive waste
CONTINUED dumping at the closed Second Creek refuse site has drawn the ire of environmental experts.
The Second Creek dumpsite was closed in 2010 following a series of complaints from Buffalo Flats residents and the health hazard posed by the site.
According to Daily Dispatch archives, the then Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) when it advertised the dumpsite’s closure, said that only building rubble would be accepted for disposal at the dumpsite.
At the time, BCM officials told the Dispatch that all garden refuse would be redirected to other dumpsites around the city.
The Dispatch visited Second Creek this week and found the majority of waste was garden refuse, building rubble, as well as miscellaneous domestic refuse.
An environmental consultant who spoke to the Dispatch on the condition of anonymity said the Second Creek dumpsite had been almost completely rehabilitated and had greenery growing there before the recent spate of dumping at the site. “If you go there now you will see that BCMM has re-opened the landfill site,” he said.
The consultant added that Second Creek’s licence as a waste site was terminated by the national Department of Environmental Affairs.
BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese confirmed this, and added that the municipality had applied for a closure permit for Second Creek.
The consultant said it was illegal to operate Second Creek as a dumpsite without a licence. “They [BCM] are accepting all sorts of mixed waste with no management of where the waste is dumped, because there is no more place to put rubbish after the site was rehabilitated,” the consultant said.
However, the consultant disputed the municipality’s version of events. “It is incredibly disingenuous of BCMM to say that the current dumping is part of ongoing re-rehabilitation considering that Second Creek was actually closed and fully rehabilitated with a full earth topping and everything in early 2011,” he said. —