Landfill Site Selection

Four (4) sites have been proposed as the site of the City´s sanitary landfill. The sites are located in barangays Aglalana, Agtambo, Bacuranan, and Bayanan in Passi City. A site selection process has been conducted and the selection criteria for landfill establishment stipulated in the IRR of RA 9003 have been applied.

Criteria for Site Selection

Section 38 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Republic Act 9003 provides clear guidelines for site selection of Sanitary Landfill. These guidelines are stated as follows:

1. The location of the facility shall be consistent with the overall land use plan of the LGU.
2. The site shall be accessible from major roadways and thoroughfares, provided that if it is not accessible, the project design shall include means of access.
3. The site shall have an adequate quantity of earth cover material that is easily handled and compacted; as an alternative, an offsite guaranteed source of cover material shall be identified.
4. If the site is located within two (2) kilometers of an airport runway, it shall not pose a bird hazard to aircraft. The owner/operator shall institute a bird control program so as to prevent hazards to aircraft if bird population becomes significant due to the operation of the landfill. The site shall comply with other requirements for safety of flying aircraft in terms of height of structures, such as provisions for obstruction lights, if required.
5. Locations of public water supply intakes located within one (1) kilometer from the facility, including active public drinking water supply wells, shall be shown on a facility map.
6. The facility shall not be constructed within 75 meters from a Holocene fault or known recent active fault.
7. If significant archaeological and cultural resources are present at the site, such resources shall be protected and preserved.
8. If the site is a habitat of listed endangered species, mitigation measures for protection of the species as required by applicable laws shall be included in the project proposal.
9. The site shall be chosen with regard to the sensitivities of the community's residents. The Sangguniang Bayan/Lungsod of the host LGU shall adopt a resolution confirming compliance with the pertinent siting, design criteria and standards. The resolution shall be deemed as having fully satisfied the public sensitivity requirement of this section.
10. The site shall be located in an area where the landfill's operation will not detrimentally affect environmentally sensitive resources such as aquifers, groundwater reservoir or watershed area.
11. The facility shall be a minimum 50 meters away from any perennial stream, lake or river.
12. The site shall be evaluated for presence of geologic hazards, faults, unstable soils, its foundation stability, and its hydrogeologic character. The site shall not be located in a floodplain.

The following table presents the summary of the comparison of the four sites.

Criteria Used for the Selection of Sites

Criteria	Aglalana	Agtambo	Bacuranan	Bayan
1. Land area and availability: Should accommodate at lease 10 years of operation	6.5ha Owed by the City	5.0ha govt. lot	3.0ha private lot	3.0ha private lot
2. Hauling  Distance: Should not be too far to minimize the cost of hauling	14 km	9 km	7 km	7.5 km
3. Accessibility	1 km from Highway to the site with dirt portion of macadam	2 km dirt road going to site	2 km dirt/feeder road going to site	Accessible through a brgy. road
4. Proximity of perennial surface water and groundwater source; Presence of water supply source or intake structure	Spring is located around 150 meters		Presence of natural spring	No data
5. Proximity to sensitive land users	Households are located around 200 meters	No data	No data	No data
6. Topography: The terrain shall be favorable to land shaping; Slope should be moderate	Moderate to hilly	Hilly	Plain to hilly	Moderate
7. Geology and soil type: Presence of clay and/or cover materials is an advantage	Clay and clay silt on the top layer	Clay loam and limestone	Sandy soil	Clay loam to sandy clay, limestone
8. Current and future land use	More than half of the area is unproductive and idle; Not suitable for agriculture	The area is part of the timberland of Brgy Agtambo	Agricultura; Planted with sugarcane, banana and rice	Planted with mahogany, ipil ipil, gemelina, vines, and grasses
9. Land ownership	Owned by the City Government	Part of the Socialized Industrial Forest Management (SIFMA) by Palomares and Tiongson Company	Privately owned	Privately owned
10. Occurrence of flooding	None	-	-	-
Other relevant information
Social acceptability	Endorsed by the Brgy for the proposed landfill	To be determined	Existence of apparent resistance by the community	To be determined
Vegetation	The area is covered with grass such as hgonoy, talahib, cogon and other fruit trees e.g.langka, and star apple	Bamboo, Ipil Ipil, kakawati, wild bamboo and grasses	Sugar cane banana and rice	Forest trees e.g. Mahogany, Ipil Ipil, Gmelina, Vines and Grasses

Advantages of the Selected Site

The preliminary investigation of the four sites shows that the site in barangay Aglalana fulfills most of the criteria cited by the law. Favorable factors include: the site is owned by city; manifested social acceptability; clay material is available at the site; the topography may pose some difficulties but allows a technically feasible design; and, the land is not particularly valuable from the agricultural or ecological point of view.

In contrast, the site in Bacuranan is privately owned; features strong resistance by the residents; and is of considerable agricultural value. The sites in Bayan and Agtomban are lime stone sites, unsuitable for the establishment of a SLF due to their high permeability, possible caves and sink holes.

For these reasons, the LGU of Passi designated the identified area in Aglalana as the site for the future sanitary landfill. There are other advantages for choosing the proposed site as follows:

• There is public acceptance, and the members of Barangay Council have signified their endorsement for the proposed project
• The area is sufficient to accommodate wastes for the next 15 years.
• There is clay soil available at the site to contribute to the material requirements for the base liner system.
• There land area is adequate for the establishment of an MRF which can process bio wastes to achieve the projected 25 % diversion rate.
• The site does not affect any neighboring communities.