the Airport dump.

Mr. Nelson Hunt, who operates the dump for the Ministry of Works and Engineering, blamed bad weather and said nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

"It's just one of those things where we've had an extremely bad winter,'' Mr.

Hunt said. "Over the past two months, something was bound to get away.'' Works and Engineering Minister the Hon. Leonard Gibbons said ash blocks from the Tynes Bay Incinerator were expected to solve the problem over the next few years.

The blocks were being dropped into water 45 to 60 feet deep to form a large "cell'' or breakwater that would allow the waste to fill part of Castle Harbour without risk of being carried away, Mr. Gibbons said.

Sources said the heavy metal waste had not only been washing up on beaches in Tucker's Town and elsewhere around Castle Harbour, but was posing a risk to navigation. They agreed the problem was not new.

"We've gotten a call from one of the caretakers in Tucker's Town,'' Mr. Hunt told The Royal Gazette . Some recent clean-up had been required on Tucker's Town beaches, due to bad weather, he said.

"From time to time stuff does get away. But nothing major has happened over there. What people are trying to do is create a problem for Works and Engineering.'' Rejecting the suggestion there had been a break in the boom surrounding the landfill, Mr. Hunt said metal objects were crushed before they were put in the water. Appliances that could still float had to be coming from the old part of the landfill, which had been suffering some erosion, he said.

It is not only in Tucker's Town that waste has washed up. At the US Naval Air Station, the Airport landfill has earned the nickname, "Sears by the Sea''.

A recent Earth Day clean-up at the Base resulted in 47 truck loads of waste, including a refrigerator, being "returned'' to the Airport dump from beaches on Cooper's Island and elsewhere on the Base, said Base Commanding Officer Capt. Tim Bryan.

"It's all kinds of appliances,'' Capt. Bryan said. "Anything that floats just kind of drifts across Castle Harbour.'' The Navy performed such a clean-up annually, but this appeared to have been a particularly bad winter, he said.

Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons said the Airport dump was "an ongoing concern''. But it was the responsibility of Works and Engineering, and it was not actively monitored by the Environment Ministry, he said.

"Ideally, the fill is creating land which we can use,'' Sen. Simons said.

"That is the good side of it.'' Mr. Hunt, who has held the five-year contract for about 18 months, said the dump was "better run now than it ever was''.

"We can take responsibility for some of it, but not all of it,'' he said.

"Whatever is happening over there now has been happening for the last 20 years. I personally don't think there is anything to be alarmed about.'' Mr. Hunt said individual boaters should take more responsibility for the dump.

"Everyone leaves it up to Works and Engineering and to us,'' he said.

If boaters spotted something floating in the harbour, and "they figure it's dirtying up the place, they should pull it up on the side and we could send a truck for it''.

Mr. Gibbons said he had received no recent complaints about the landfill.

Government was "currently working toward the final solution'', by use of the blocks, which are made from incinerator ash mixed with concrete.

"We do on occasion have problems with extremely high tides,'' he said.

"Complaints normally come up in the summer time, when people are in their boats.''