San Luis Rio Colorado Training

This program aims to fulfill BECC's mandate, which focuses on working together with all the border environmental organizations, especially municipalities, to create environmental infrastructure, including the setup required for the sustainable management of municipal solid waste.

As background information, it should be noted that in October 2001, the BECC certified a project for the construction of a $4-million dollar Sanitary Landfill in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora. The construction of the project was completed in 2005 and the aim of this training effort is to make the infrastructure fully operational and maximize its use. The BECC has been working with the municipality and the government of Sonora to implement the necessary actions for this to become a reality.

A first action was the recent approval of the environmental license for the operation of the landfill by the Commission of Ecology and Sustainable Development (CEDES).

Additionally, since the project is just starting operations, the BECC proposed a training program designed to facilitate compliance of the landfill with its Operations Manual and the provisions of Official Mexican Standard NOM-083/SEMARNAT-2003.

The purpose of this program is to enhance the skills of San Luis Rio Colorado's operating and technical staff to ensure the sustainable and efficient management of the landfill, which will now become active for the first time, 8 years after its construction was finished. The training program consists of three 8-hour days of classroom instruction and a hands-on session of at least 8 hours at the landfill, which will be scheduled in the future. The hands-on session is being coordinated with San Luis Rio Colorado's Directorate of Public Works. Classroom training included the following activities:

• Identify the status of the San Luis Rio Colorado sanitary landfill to facilitate its full implementation, in compliance with Official Mexican Standard NOM-083/SEMARNAT-2003.
• Quantify the capacity and layout of the San Luis Rio Colorado sanitary landfill to determine its life cycle.
• Update the San Luis Rio Colorado landfill's Operating Manual pursuant to its geomorphological features and technical attributes.
• Provide training to technical, administrative and operating staff as determined by San Luis Rio Colorado municipal officials, to oversee the operation of the local sanitary landfill, consistent with the applicable engineering recommendations and in compliance with the provisions of Official Mexican Standard NOM-083/SEMARNAT-2003.
• Ensure that the operation of the San Luis Rio Colorado sanitary landfill meets the requirements of the Operating Manual developed for the project, as well as the provisions of Official Mexican Standard NOM-083/SEMARNAT-2003.

The Mayor of San Luis Rio Colorado, Leonardo Arturo Guillen Medina, attended the workshop's opening ceremony and along with the consultant, his team, and the BECC official, toured the sanitary landfill, including the cell to be activated, the METPLAS private transfer station and the wastewater treatment plant certified by the BECC and financed by the North American Development Bank.

All these activities reflected the municipality's willingness to make the best possible use of this environmental infrastructure and properly dispose of their waste, and the good disposition of garbage pickers to work under a formal waste recycling scheme. Additionally, the potential to reuse the sludge produced by the wastewater treatment plant is being explored.