8,000 square metres of
salt pond being filled in
SUCKER GARDEN--Great Salt Pond will be 8,000 square metres smaller when the filling-in of a section in Sucker Garden to create new land is completed in the coming days.
Sand dredged from around the Dr. A.C. Wathey Cruise Facility pier is being used to create the land with government’s permission. The site will be utilised by cement and construction material supplier Bouwbedrijf Boven Winden (BBW) when it shifts its operations from Airport Boulevard.
Environmental Development and Property Management Commissioner Roy Marlin told The Daily Herald via telephone from the Netherlands that the filling-in was in keeping with government’s “firm commitment,” dating back to 1998, to BBW to provide needed land in another location for the company in return for relinquishing the long lease contract for the Airport Boulevard site.
The company had to vacate the Airport Boulevard site to make way for the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) phase II expansion, which includes the new terminal building and parking area.
Not providing the land as promised would have cost government “a substantial amount of money” and would have hampered the operations of a company that is vital in the island’s current building boom, Marlin said.
Environmental awareness group St. Maarten Pride Foundation has “serious concerns” about the constant filling-in and diminished water collection capacity of this natural basin, which is also being filled in at several other locations.
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