By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The expansion of Arawak Cay’s sewerage system will involve installing an Industrial Bulk Container and wider pipes to enable it to cope with the volume of waste cooking oil generated by food vendors.

The sewer expansion will have “more than sufficient capacity,” to manage the amount of vendors using the Fish-Fry with the instal- lation of an Industrial Bulk Container (IBC) for excess oil storage.

Leyvon Miller, Arawak Cay’s facilities manager, told Tribune Business the current eight-inch sewer pipes will be replaced by the larger 10-inch variety to combat the “clogging” caused by the amount of oil and grease waste from the vendors. He pledged that the $130,000 sewerage infrastructure upgrade will have “more than sufficient capacity” to handle the Fish Fry’s needs.

Mr Miller said: “The issue in the sewer system is that, over the years, vendors have been pouring oil into the line. That has massively reduced the capacity of the system. The IBC installation will give the vendor somewhere to properly discard their oil. And, when they do, that should increase the longevity of the actual sewer system.”

Besides the installation of ten-inch pipes, the IBC container will act as a receptacle for vendors to pour their excess oil into. Mr Miller added that the relationship between the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources and the vendors is “sound”, and he has been in constant con- tact with Rodney Russell, the Arawak Cay Vendors Association’s president, on every detail.

He said: “The president knows all of this. I have sat with the president time and time again, and I have told him that we would do the work in the day time. I told him that we are only intending to do it when the businesses are closed. I also told him that there may be some dust in the area as a result, but that is all of the inconvenience I intend to cause them.”

Mr Russell previously told this newspaper he was never consulted on the specifics of the proposed new sewer system for Arawak Cay. Nor was he invited to Wednesday’s announcement of the upgrades, adding that the ministry does not have a monopoly on the best solution for the Fish Fry.

Mr Miller, though, said he speaks with Mr Russell once a month on initiatives that the ministry is under- taking at Arawak Cay. He added that the Association president has been invited on “several occasions” to go on walkabouts with ministry and Water and Sewerage Corporation officials to survey the area ahead of the new system’s implementation.

Asserting that Mr Russell has participated in all these events except for one, which was held recently prior to Monday’s sewerage system announcement Mr Miller said: “The president thinks that everybody should be on their own personal sewer system and how would I know that if I had not spoken to the president?

“That’s not what’s going to happen, and the Government could never allow people to govern themselves. We are the Government. What is going to happen is we’re going to expand the capacity of the sewer line. So, there’s an eight-inch pipe in the ground presently.

“Water & Sewerage Corporation technicians have advised that the eight-inch pipe has lasted about a decade. We’re going to up that to a ten-inch pipe and some people are even calling it overkill. But the goal here is longevity, and in the instances where we’re unable to alter the culture or the practices of all the vendors, we want to ensure that we have more than sufficient capacity,” Mr Miller added.

“So we’re going to put the IBC in place to store oil above ground where it will be pumped, washed regularly and carted away. And the understanding is that the company that will be contracted to do that can do marvellous things like create biodiesel and all of that environmentally-friendly stuff.

“But what will happen, ultimately, is the sewer line should be void of any oil or we should reduce the oil in the system to an irreducible minimum. Doing that will guarantee that this system lasts 30, 40 or maybe 50 years. That is the goal. I have advised the president on that.”