Quarry management says there’s no dumping at the quarry site

Well known businessman Anderson Cherry has dismissed recent suggestions that his illegal dump at the Lower Estate Quarry is still in operation.

Earlier this week, political hopeful Floyd Reifer vowed to seek relief from the High Court on behalf of frustrated residents, some of whom believe the dump is still up and running.

Cherry, who was instructed to cease operations at the Sustainable Recycling Barbados plant back in 2017, however says that for months he has been working with authorities to tackle continuous smouldering in the quarry along with toxic fumes in the atmosphere.

In addition to ceasing operations, Cherry told Barbados TODAY that he has wholeheartedly agreed to bear the financial burden associated with the suffering of residents as well as the remediation work to be carried out.

“It has been a [financial] burden, and we don’t want to put a cost to people’s health or discomfort, but we have already spent a significant amount here,” he said.

“I would like to be a good corporate citizen and to work with the people to have the problem mitigated. We are willing to fix the problem. That’s the first thing, and so far we bore all the costs associated with fixing this and we will continue to do that,” he added.

Attorney General Dale Marshall on Tuesday indicated that Mr. Cherry would no longer be actively involved in the effort.

But the businessman told Barbados TODAY that his company has spent over $1 million dollars on excavation equipment to address some of the issues.

“We cut the edges, packed it with clay and we were compacting and that was the plan with the fire service and other entities who were doing their technical stuff and we were just waiting on their instruction,” he explained.

“If you go down there, you would see grass growing in the area. So there is no dumping at all going on at the facility,” Cherry further contended.

In response to the arguments made by Reifer, Cherry replied: “Real leaders look for solutions and I expected them to sit with me or speak with me to arrive at a solution. For some reason, he did not do that.”

In the meantime, the businessman has again called for issues relating to solid waste management to be properly addressed.

“We have a waste management problem in Barbados, and we have to look at the way we dispose and separate waste at the source. I think that it’s the way forward and this is not an Anderson Cherry problem,” said the businessman.