ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, July 2, 1996 TAG: 9607020078
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SELMA
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
THE 24-ACRE, 725,000-ton pile of trash closed in May 1990 after local residents forced the state to take action against the landfill's owners. The owners went bankrupt, leaving a mess behind.
Six years after it closed, somebody is finally going to do something about the smelly, leachate-leaking Kim-Stan landfill.
During a stop on his "Listening Tour" of the state, Governor George Allen announced that Alleghany County is getting $134,300 from the state's Transportation Enhancement Program to implement an experimental "bioremediation" program.
The idea is to construct wetlands that will serve as natural filters for run-off from the landfill, cleansing it before it reaches the Jackson River. The money will also fund the preservation of the historic Oakland Church and cemetery across the street from the landfill. A Tom Hopkins, head of the state Department of Environmental Quality, credited the "tenacity and civic mindedness of a hearty band of citizens" with finding an innovative solution and landing the funds to get it going.
"It's a big step," said Bath County farmer Ed Walters, who headed the Kim-Stan Advisory Committee. "It lets the people in the community know they aren't forgotten."
No one involved, however, was prepared to say the plan to clean the runoff will definitely work. Both Hopkins and Allen hedged their otherwise enthusiastic remarks by saying bioremediation "may be useful" in controlling the problem.
"It's gonna work," said Del. Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs, "but I don't think its going to take care of the problem. The underlying problem is still there. You don't have to walk out 100 feet to find trash coming up through the ground."
That controlling the run-off merely treats a symptom was roundly acknowledged from the podium and in the crowd, but the relief that something was being done about the landfill seemed to carry the day.
The 24-acre, 725,000 ton pile of trash was closed in May 1990 after local residents forced the state to take action against the landfill's owners. After a long court battle, the owners went bankrupt. According to Deeds, the state sued and won $200,000, but that didn't cover the cost of pursuing the case. The DEQ put a layer of dirt over the landfill, but nothing else has been done to properly close it.
Enter retired NASA engineer B.C. Wolverton, who spent years designing wastewater treatment systems for space stations and lunar colonies. Wolverton figured out a way to use man-made wetlands to break down organic compounds in the leachate and absorb heavy metals and other toxins.
A similar system designed by Wolverton has been successfully treating 100,000 gallons of wastewater a day in the Highland County town of Monterey for eight years. It cost the town less than half the $500,000 a conventional treatment facility would have cost.
Whatever the Kim-Stan wetlands project ultimately costs, it will be a good bit less than the $10 million a 1993 estimate said it would cost to properly cap the landfill.
In announcing the grant for the project, Allen said Kim-Stan still owns the landfill, is responsible for its cleanup, and will pay for the company's "irresponsible behavior." He didn't say how the bankrupt company could ever be made to pay.
"If he's got theories, I'm sure he'll go forward," Delegate Deeds said.
Allen later backed down on his rhetoric.
"Granted, there's nothing realistically that could be done to make them pay," he said. "I just wanted to send the message to other companies" that they can't get away with leaving a mess like this one.
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