Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 22, 1991                   TAG: 9102220423
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY METRO 
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

BERM TO BLOCK VIEW OF LANDFILL MAY BE COMPLETED BY MARCH 8

Fred Hilliard, the New River Resource Authority's program director, told the Radford-Pulaski County landfill board that work on the berm is 72 percent finished and there's still 20 working days before the deadline.

Construction started in December. Circuit Court Judge Duane Mink of Radford ordered the work finished in 90 days as part of an injunction prohibiting the state Department of Waste Management from enforcing a 450-foot buffer between the landfill and homes that overlook the landfill.

The berm is 200 feet from the homes.

Hilliard said 14 days of good weather should be sufficient to complete the berm. But he cautioned that the March 8 completion date might not be met if the weather returns to a "freeze-thaw cycle and mixed precipitation."

John Olver, the authority's consulting engineer on regional landfill projects, said the additional landfill space gained with the berm, and from a southern expansion recently approved, will give the landfill an estimated life of 41 months.

That gives the authority some breathing room as it pursues a permit for a permanent landfill in Pulaski County.

The authority also accepted an agreement with the Department of Waste Management to resolve violations caused by stockpiling wood debris at Ingles Mountain.

In August, the department warned the authority that the stockpile - much of it from Hurricane Hugo - was a major violation. In reaction, the authority bought mulching equipment to help reduce the pile and met with the department to resolve the problems.

The stockpile was started in early 1989 before the debris landfill was completed. The authority had been planning a yard waste composting facility last fall at the Peppers Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant off Virginia 114 in Pulaski County.

After complaints from the Department of Waste Management, some of the waste was placed in the debris landfill. The stockpile increased dramatically because of the cleanup after Hurricane Hugo tore through the area in September 1989.

The agreement takes the place of any formal enforcement action. The authority agreed to remove the wood-debris pile by mid-March, mostly through mulching. Charles Maus, the authority's executive director, said some of the debris may be burned.

If there are future similar violations, the authority is subject to penalties up to $20,000 "for basically having an open dump," Maus said.