Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 18, 1993 TAG: 9307160013
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Ground was broken Wednesday off Interstate 81-77 for the station, which will serve Wythe and Bland counties.
The two counties began looking about four years ago for a landfill site that would meet the stricter state environmental requirements that took effect in October. They formed the Wythe-Bland Joint Public Service Authority about two years ago.
Authority Chairman Andy Kegley said about 40 sites were considered. Eventually those were narrowed down to two sites, both in the Max Meadows area in eastern Wythe County.
One of them raised concerns two years ago in the Town of Pulaski, where officials worried that a landfill might affect water in Bear Wallow Hollow. That water drains into Peak Creek, which provides water for Pulaski.
It was about a year later that the authority considered going to a private contractor instead of building its own landfill.
Its first negotiations were with Chambers Corp. to haul solid waste out of a joint transfer station to a landfill in Amelia County. Those negotiations ended in February and the authority contracted with Waste Management Inc. to haul waste from the station by truck to a landfill in Kernersville, N.C.
The 20-acre transfer station site has nearby rail access, in case it later becomes more economic to ship waste that way. "That's something we think is going to be pretty important in the future," Kegley said.
The counties are generating about 80 tons of waste daily, but the station will have a capacity of 200 tons per day. "So we have plenty of room for expansion," Kegley said.
He said the five-year contract with Waste Management Inc. had funding caps in it. "It's an assurance that, had we built our own landfill, we could not give anybody," he said.
The tipping fee at the station will be about $47 per ton, when it starts operating in October.
Olin Armentrout, the authority's vice chairman, said the station should have a minimal impact on the surrounding agricultural community. It is designed so waste will be taken out the same day it comes in, he said, and the facility will be cleaned after each day's operation.
The authority had planned to fund the project through a Farmers Home Administration loan, but learned in recent weeks that it would have to evaluate the site archaeologically to see if any historic artifacts were buried there.
That would have taken an extra month or two, and the counties did not have that much time if their station was to be on line when the new state regulations start in October. They will seek private financing instead.
Thompson & Litton Inc. of Wise has been the engineer for the project. H.S. Williams Co. Inc. of Marion is the contractor.
The project includes a new paved-road entrance, transfer building, sewer system, parking area, scale house, truck scales and other facilities.
by CNB