ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
Montgomery County is close to signing a deal to join a regional landfill group that serves Pulaski County, its two towns and Radford.
The Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority - made up of the county, its two towns and Virginia Tech - is likely to formally join the New River Resource Authority within the next month or so.
The agreement would bring the NRRA closer to its goal when it was established in 1987: to meet regional needs for trash disposal. That means that within two years, most of the New River Valley's garbage would be buried in one place - a new landfill on Cloyds Mountain in Pulaski County. Almost all of the valley's cans, bottles and other recyclables, meanwhile, would go to a new recycling center near Christiansburg for sorting.
Negotiations have been ongoing for about a year and appear to be concluding, with the final issue being what price the Montgomery authority will pay to join.
The Montgomery waste authority took over the county's trash collection and landfill operations in July 1995. From the start, the authority's plans were to join the NRRA, a move that required General Assembly action in 1995 because state law had forbidden one regional authority from joining another.
The NRRA will open its new 350-acre landfill next month. The facility, north of Dublin and off Virginia 100 on the south side of Cloyds Mountain, will at first serve Radford, Pulaski County and its two towns. Ingles Mountain Landfill in west Radford, the facility used by the group since 1989, will reach capacity in the next month.
Trash from Montgomery County will begin going to Cloyds Mountain when the Mid-County Landfill, located off U.S. 460 near the county pool and recreation offices, reaches capacity. That's not expected to happen until 1998.
Charles Maus, the NRRA's executive director, said that when the agreement is reached, it will mean residents will have a "long-term landfill at reasonable costs."
The landfill is expected to last at least 50 years.
Local governments cover the cost of sending trash to the region's two landfills by the fees they charge for garbage pickup. Right now, participating members of the NRRA are charged $57.50 a ton; while the dumping fee is $53 a ton for the Montgomery users. But those costs are expected to decrease into the $40 per ton range when the resource authority expands, Maus said.
Also as part of the agreement, the New River Resource Authority will use Montgomery's new recycling center, which should open next month near the current Montgomery landfill entrance.
The $2.9 million center will use state-of-the-art equipment to sort cans, bottles, newspaper and other recyclable materials and prepare them for market.
Joe Gorman is a Board of Supervisors member who serves on the solid waste authority and is a member of the negotiating team dealing with the New River Resource Authority. Gorman said the recycling center should be open by mid-November and a dedication is planned for Nov. 27.
Equipment was being installed this week. When it is ready to be used, recyclable material will be dumped onto the floor, sorted, sent up a conveyor belt, deposited into bins, compacted and baled. The recyclables are then "shipped to somebody that can use it," Gorman said, such as aluminum and steel to processors and paper to paper plants.
"The ultimate goal is that you make a profit," Gorman said. "The history has been if you can break even you achieve a real good goal."
That's because prices paid for recyclables fluctuate, he said.
"What you're doing is keeping stuff out of the landfill and the cost of the landfill is much higher" than the cost of recycling.
"Some things, we have to charge to get rid of - $33 a ton to whoever brings it as opposed to $53 a ton to dump it in the landfill," Gorman said.
Gorman said the recycling plant will not separate recyclables from garbage, but will make it easier to sort items that have been sorted from garbage at the source: at greenboxes or at homes in Blacksburg where recycling is mandatory.
The county is meeting a state-mandated 25 percent recycling goal. With the recycling center, "we would expect to go higher, probably in the 40 percent range."
Gorman believes the agreement with the NRRA is near.
"I think we've got all of the problems resolved," he said. With the Montgomery authority providing 55 percent of the garbage that's expected to go into the landfill, "it's beneficial to both parties to get together."
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM/Staff. 1. & 2. The $2.9 million recyclingby CNBcenter will use state-of-the-art equipment to sort and ready cans,
bottles, newspaper and other recyclable materials for the market.
Graphic: Map by staff.