Gwangju City Establishes Action Plan for Landfill Waste at Ilgok 2nd and 3rd Neighborhood Parks

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 9th that it has established an action plan to resolve the waste problem buried in Ilgok 2nd and 3rd Neighborhood Parks.

This action plan was prepared after consultations with city advisory lawyers, the legal support team of the Korea Environment Corporation, the Ministry of Environment, and other experts in related fields, following a dialogue between Mayor Lee Yong-seop and residents of Ilgok-dong in December last year to resolve the Ilgok landfill waste issue.

The main content includes forming an advisory group and conducting a detailed environmental pollution (damage) investigation led by a third-party professional institution, not Gwangju City, to ensure objectivity and fairness, and deciding the course of action based on the results.

In particular, the landfill waste treatment advisory group will be composed of experts, lawyers, residents, and city council members to discuss detailed investigation advice and reasonable landfill waste treatment measures.

The detailed investigation is being promoted to resolve residents' concerns about the condition of the landfill site and to prevent legal disputes such as abuse of discretion that may arise during administrative actions (orders for measures).

The investigation will include drilling into the buried waste to examine its hazardousness and landfill conditions, and monitoring leachate, landfill gas, and soil contamination over four seasons to assess the decomposition and stabilization level of the landfill waste. The investigation points will also be expanded compared to previous environmental impact surveys.

To ensure transparency, Gwangju City plans to entrust the selection, management, and supervision of the detailed investigation company to a credible third-party professional institution decided by the advisory group.

The implementation schedule is as follows: ▲ formation of the advisory group and selection of the detailed investigation agency by July ▲ signing an agreement with the detailed investigation agency in August ▲ preparation of the detailed investigation plan and review by the advisory group by December ▲ issuance of the detailed investigation order in January next year.

If the detailed investigation results determine the presence of hazardousness or environmental pollution, the Buk-gu District Office of Gwangju, which has authority under the Waste Management Act, will issue an administrative order for waste treatment to LH Corporation (formerly Korea Land Development Corporation). In other cases, the treatment plan will be decided through resident opinion collection and other means.

Park Jae-woo, head of the city's Resource Circulation Division, said, “Since the creation of a landfill without installation approval violates the Waste Management Act, administrative orders are possible. However, to eliminate the illegality of the administrative order itself, we will proceed through procedures such as investigating environmental hazards caused by landfill waste, even if it takes time.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.