Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991 TAG: 9103020173
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Pulaski Town Manager Don Holycross attended a meeting of the four governing bodies this week in Wytheville. He expressed Town Council's concerns over a site where contamination could affect water in Bear Wallow Hollow, which drains into Peak Creek, Pulaski's water source.
The four governing bodies seem to have narrowed their focus to two sites, both generally northeast of Max Meadows in eastern Wythe County.
Site 39 contains 1,539 acres and is available for $700,000 from Gateway Land Co. That is the closer one to Pulaski, and the one town officials were worried about.
Site 40, with 834 acres, would cost $111,000. Currently, the governing bodies seem to be leaning toward that one, where the acreage suitable for a landfill is together rather than split up.
But people in the Max Meadows section of Wythe County are worried about Site 40 for the same reasons Pulaski is worried about Site 39. They attended the Thursday night meeting, too.
"This is an extremely important thing," said retired postmaster Olin Armentrout. "And an error now is an error forever."
But Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe and Supervisor Andy Kegley pointed out that landfill action must be taken soon, despite the "not-in-my-back-yard" attitude most people have toward such facilities.
"We are extremely concerned that there be no water pollution," Crewe said. "We cannot pollute, period. We cannot afford to guess wrong."
He said the required double-liners to prevent leakage and other new safety additions are making new landfills different from current ones.
"There is no such thing as a good site, or a great site, in Wythe County," said Lynn Croy, representing Draper-Aden, the Blacksburg consultants hired to help find a landfill site.
The 1991 General Assembly extended the deadline for localities to have landfills in compliance with new state regulations to Jan. 1, 1994, assuming Gov. Douglas Wilder signs it. But Croy noted that the localities will probably need all that time.
Assuming a drilling company would be hired by April and could start checking out the soils of a potential site, she said, data probably would not be complete before September. That would allow three months to have the first part of the application to the state by the end of the year.
The second part of the application involves the design, and would probably not be complete until the end of 1993 - assuming the state approved part one.
If the state takes six months to approve the permit, Croy said, "that gives you six months to construct your landfill."
by CNB