Environmental and hygiene emergencies surrounding the George Town landfill will recur in 20 years if it is moved to Bodden Town, spreading chemical and noise pollution, threatening public health and reducing property values.

Equally, the move would undermine the chance to reduce Cayman’s cost of living through converting waste to cheaper electricity and clean water.

In an enthusiastic Bodden Town Civic Centre meeting, organised on Tuesday by the 75-member Coalition to Keep Bodden Town Dump Free, a 200-member audience heard from group leaders Gregg Anderson and Vincent Frederick — 2009 independent political `candidate – and a range of opposition politicians: Opposition Leader Alden McLaughlin, and PPM MLAs Kurt Tibbetts, Arden McLean and Anthony Eden, and North Side independent Ezzard Miller. The gathering also featured Walker’s lawyer and local resident Wayne Panton.

”To redevelop Camana Bay is the primary reason to transfer the dump to Bodden Town,” Mr Anderson told a packed auditorium. “Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand and declare war. This is about the health and well-being of our community. Dumps are medieval and have no place in a modern society, and certainly not in Bodden Town, the fastest-growing district. We ask you to join the protest against this blatant disregard for your health. It is immoral.”

Part of the Dart Realty-government ForCayman Aliance, a $1.5 bilion, 30-year programme of jobs, investment and infrastructure creation, the recapping, remediation and relocation of the George Town landfill — and construction of a replacement 110-acre “waste-management facility” east of Bodden Town — will free land for expansion of Dart’s Camana Bay community.

Speaker after speaker hammered the theme that at least five reports and remediation tenders since 1992 had not sought relocation of the George Town landfill, instead seeking on-site waste-to-energy activity.

The meeting heard that government had never consulted local residents nor conducted an environmental assessment of the move.

“Bodden Town was not an option until Dart spent hundreds of millions of dollars,” on land and infrastructure for Camana Bay, Mr Miller said, citing original plans to convert waste to electricity, sold at reduced rates through Caribbean Utilities Company. “It’s our last chance to reduce the cost of living. No reasonable concoction justifies moving the dump from George Town to Bodden Town.

“Government no longer decides on the basis of what is best for the country,” he said, establishing the absence in the meeting of UDP members, including Bodden Town MLAs Mark Scotland and Dwayne Seymour.

“We cannot even get our two MLAs to a meeting to discuss our concerns,” Mr Frederick thundered. Why does the George Town dump have to move into another district? The premier thinks Bodden Town people are idiots.

“We are going to get five mini–Mt Trashmores,” he said, referring to the series of storage areas Dart has planned for the Midland Acres “Eco Park”.

Dart Realty has consistently failed to respond to 5 January questions posed by iNews Cayman about the relocation, road access and public consultation. Earlier queries have been met with “no comment”.

Mr McLaughlin called the move ‘senseless” telling the audience “no matter who or how many experts say differently, the reality is that this is a transfer of the landfill in George Town to a landfill in Bodden Town. We believe it is senseless to move a major problem in George Town to a new major problem. We are opposed to the transfer of the dump from George Town to anywhere else. Let’s fix the problem where it is,” he said.

Mr Eden detailed public-health hazards proximal to any landfill and renewed last week’s calls by the West Bay Action Committee for a joint public march and demonstration in Heroes Square at the next Legislative Assembly meeting, so far unscheduled.

Calling for a display of hands, Mr Eden elicited a roar of approval: “Who objects to this dump moving  to Bodden Town?”