Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991 TAG: 9103020457
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A6 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: MAX MEADOWS LENGTH: Medium
About 40 came to voice concerns Thursday night at a joint meeting of the Wythe and Bland county boards of supervisors and the Wytheville and Rural Retreat town councils.
"This is an extremely important thing," retired Postmaster Olin Armentrout said. "And an error now is an error forever."
"If we've got dirty water at Fort Chiswell, you can forget about putting a factory there," said Carolyn Widener.
But Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe and Supervisor Andy Kegley pointed out that action must be taken soon, despite the "not in my back yard" attitude that most people have toward landfills.
"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. "The technology is a lot different than it was even five years ago."
The four governing bodies seem to have narrowed their focus to two sites, both generally northeast of Max Meadows in eastern Wythe County.
One has 1,539 acres and is available for $700,000 from Gateway Land Co. The other, with 834 acres, would cost $111,000.
The governing bodies seem to be leaning toward the second site, where the acreage useable for landfill purposes is not split up. It also is further away from Pulaski, where officials have expressed concern about a landfill affecting its Peak Creek water source.
"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 time for localities to have landfills in compliance with new state regulations to Jan. 1, 1994, assuming Gov. Douglas Wilder signs the bill. Croy said the localities will probably need all that time.
Assuming a drilling company would be hired by April to start checking soil, data probably would not be complete before September, she said. 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 process, and probably would not be complete until the end of 1993, assuming the state approved the first part. If the state takes six months to approve the permit, she said, "that gives you six months to construct your landfill."
by CNB