Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 19, 1995 TAG: 9507190019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: TAZEWELL LENGTH: Medium
While the landfill is well above the 1,000-tire state limit, Etter says inspectors from the state Department of Environmental Quality have been understanding.
After all, it's not Etter's fault his stockpile of tires keeps multiplying.
Eighteen months ago, the state signed a contract with the Radford-based Appalachian Regional Recycling Consortium to shred tires at 16 Southwest Virginia localities. Tazewell County is one of 13 localities the consortium had planned to add when it expanded its program.
The problem is, the state and the consortium can't decide what to do next - with 300,000 shredded tires behind them.
Before state officials turn over $650,000 to the consortium to expand its efforts with a second shredder and marketing program, they want to consider some other options, including private bids to shred the tires.
"One of [the Allen administration's] goals is to privatize absolutely everything we can," said Allan Lassiter, manager of the Virginia Tire Waste Management Program.
When the state and the consortium, which serves the entire New River Valley, started negotiating their contract in 1992, there were no private tire recycling companies operating in Virginia, Lassiter said. Now there are three. Out-of-state companies also are a possibility; a Baltimore firm handles Lynchburg's used tires.
Consortium officials aren't necessarily opposed to privatization, which state officials say they've been kicking around since November as a more cost-effective solution to the region's tire problem.
"If they can find a private company that wants to do this, fine," said Dave Rundgren, who oversees the consortium as executive director of the New River Valley Planning District Commission. "However, they still have a contract with Southwest Virginia to fund a workable solution."
But, he said, he's not sure the state can find a suitable private company.
"Based on the responses that DEQ got before, and the reactions other companies have had to what we're doing now, I think it's going to be ... a challenge."
Pat Therrien, manager of the consortium, said that if a private company is hired, she wants it to deliver the same level of service offered by the consortium.
"Our main concern is that the localities of Southwest Virginia receive fair and equal service - all of them," she said.
The consortium, a cooperative effort by 29 Southwest Virginia localities to market recyclables, was ready to move ahead in August 1994 with buying a second tire shredder and producing 2-inch chips for sale, but the state turned down its request for the $650,000.
The main hang-up for the state is having a secure market for the recycled chips, said Mike Murphy, who manages grants and intergovernmental affairs for the state.
Rundgren concedes that his organization hasn't gotten any companies to sign on the dotted line to buy the chips.
Companies won't sign contracts until they see the chips, he said, but the consortium can't produce the chips without the second shredder.
Whatever the outcome of the bid process, Rundgren is disappointed that it has taken a year for the state to reach this point, and says it could take another six months to sort through bids and make a decision.
In the meantime, the tires keep rolling in.
by CNB