HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — It may take eight to 10 more months to clean the island of debris left behind by Typhoon Mawar, according to Vince Arriola, director of the Department of Public Works.
Arriola spoke to lawmakers during a budget hearing Thursday and discussed immediate needs that he requested help for from federal partners.
“I said we need 20 dump trucks, 20 backhoes, two payloaders, about 50 chainsaws – we gave them the whole list,” Arriola said. “But the way (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) works is they source it locally first. They did what they could. I think at the most we were able to get 10 dump trucks. But as I understand, they’ve exhausted the local pool. So, we’re working with them to literally bring in the equipment.”
He said he doesn’t care if his agency keeps the equipment or if FEMA takes it later.
“We just need it, because I can see ourselves going maybe another eight to 10 months of cleaning the island. I think it’s going to take that long,” Arriola said.
DPW is manning and operating the three main waste disposal sites on Guam, as well as assisting mayors with green waste disposal sites in their respective villages, according to Arriola.
Air curtain burners and commercial mulchers were requested to reduce green waste collected. Arriola stated that the procurement for that equipment is ongoing.
“The thinking there is whatever is burned will be turned to ash that’ll be used by farmers. Whatever we grind up, that’ll be turned to mulch that’ll be used by farmers or residents,” Arriola said.
Illegal dumping concerns
Public Works and the Guam National Guard worked to clean up two illegal dump sites along Route 15 in Mangilao last weekend. At the hearing Thursday, Arriola said one of his agency’s biggest challenges is illegal dumpsites popping up across the island.
“It’s depressing and it’s shameful because we established these sites for people to come and put their waste,” Arriola said.
Sen. Roy Quinata, chair of the legislative committee overseeing Public Works, said he visited an illegal dump site at Astumbo before coming to the Guam Congress Building for the hearing.
“It’s ridiculous. We were going through people’s trash and it’s not even about Mawar. This is just people’s regular household trash,” Quinata said, adding that illegal dumping has been a longstanding concern on island.
“I’m not saying that Typhoon Mawar didn’t do much devastation on island. It’s a huge disaster. But I think a lot of people just really need to take a proactive approach, stop with this illegal dumping and help build our island together,” Quinata said.
The senator added that he understood people want government services to be more efficient, for trash to be picked up “today and not tomorrow,” but said GovGuam has limited resources.
Quinata said people are “really acting like spoiled brats at this point” because the situation could be much worse.
“We lost no one on Guam. I’m not saying that our situation here is not imperative. It is, … but we also have to be realistic with the response,” Quinata said.
DPW is requesting a budget of about $21.3 million for fiscal 2024, about $2 million more than the current budget.
Glenn Diego, a Guam Department of Public Works employee, uses a chainsaw to clear debris in Hagåtña on June 13, 2023.
