Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991 TAG: 9103200146
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Resident Engineer James White said workers will begin to dig channels for diverting storm water and to lay down "silt fences" to combat erosion.
This first phase of the cleanup will take a month or two, White said. The Selma landfill was shut 10 months ago.
The diversion channels will catch rainwater and slow its flow, causing less erosion, White said. The channels also will reduce the amount of water that seeps into layers of garbage and leaks out, polluting waterways leading to the Jackson River.
Workers also will plant vegetation on slopes to reduce erosion, White said.
The silt fences are pieces of black fabric installed along the bottoms of slopes and ditches to keep dirt from flowing away during rain.
Clarence Farmer, chairman of the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors, said he was pleased to learn that a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge gave the government access to the site Monday.
"This thing is really a mess," Farmer said. "We've been pushing like the dickens to get the cover on and the leachate cleared out. Things have been slow on it - too slow."
The Department of Transportation is implementing a sediment and erosion control plan devised by Draper-Aden Associates of Blacksburg, the firm hired by the state to put together a final closeout plan for the landfill.
Alleghany County officials and nearby residents had been complaining for months about the delay in cleaning up the landfill, where toxic waters continue to flow from garbage that was trucked in from outside Virginia.
The state has allocated $300,000 in its current budget for initial cleanup costs. But the entire cleanup probably will cost between $1 million and $2 million, according to Cynthia Bailey, former director of the Department of Waste Management.
by CNB