ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 13, 1997 TAG: 9704140075
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT LITTLE THE ROANOKE TIMES
Virginia is the 2nd-largest importer of waste in the country, accepting 1.7million tons every year.
New York City has waited so long to take out the trash that the pile is big enough to see from outer space.
But now it seems there's a happy dumping ground 250 miles south: Virginia.
Starting this summer, New York City will gradually close the largest landfill in the world, eventually dumping all its residential garbage - some 4.5million tons a year - in nearby states.
Some of that trash likely will be loaded into trucks or railroad cars, shipped to rural communities in central Virginia and deposited in mammoth, privately owned landfills.
Just how much of New York's 13,000-ton daily dumping will end up in Virginia is unclear. Pennsylvania and Ohio will get large shares, too.
But by 2002, when the Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island closes for good, landfill operators in the Old Dominion hope to receive New York City's trash in measures of thousands of tons a day.
Government officials in other states are protesting loudly, or urging Congress to give them the power to set up regulatory roadblocks when out-of-state trash hits their borders.
Virginia, meanwhile, has its arms and its landfills open. Gov. George Allen hasn't joined other governors lobbying Congress for new trash-management powers. And the half-dozen or so rural communities that would accept New York's trash aren't just welcoming the waste, they're giving thanks for it.
"We've already gone on record saying it's fine with us," said Amelia County Administrator John Wallace. "We're going to increase spending for the first time in three years. And without that landfill, it'd be tough to do."
The reason is simple: Trash equals cash. Waste hauling has evolved into a fiercely competitive, big-money business, and the small counties that accept out-of-state waste can reap millions in "tipping fees" from the corporations filling their landfills.
Sussex County will make $2.8million this year off other people's trash. Amelia makes almost $100,000 a month. Other landfills in Charles City and King George counties have similar arrangements and could double their revenue by tapping into the Big Apple's waste stream.
"Basically, Virginia's saddled up to the all-you-can-eat garbage buffet," said Albert Pollard, spokesman for the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club. "The other states, meanwhile, are outside picketing because of food poisoning."
The state's open-arm attitude toward other people's trash is nothing new. Virginia is the second-largest importer of waste in the country.
By recent estimates, Virginia accepts 1.7million tons of outside garbage every year. The state produces roughly 10million tons on its own a year.
Much of Virginia's out-of-state waste comes from the District of Columbia, but trash is hauled in from as far away as Connecticut and South Carolina. Only Pennsylvania takes more trash from other states, with nearly 6.6million tons imported last year, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.
But while trash from other states is already filling landfills and bank accounts around Virginia, the closure of Fresh Kills raises the stakes.
The first contract for New York's trash - about 1,700 tons a day coming from the Bronx - should be awarded soon. One of the bids would deposit all of it in Charles City County.
But as New York trash is parceled out over the next four years, all of the country's large waste haulers will seek a share. And all of them - USA Waste, Browning-Ferris Industries and Waste Management Inc. - can find space in Virginia to put it.
"The majors all have landfill capacity in Virginia," said Lee Wilson, site manager for USA Waste's landfills in Charles City and Amelia counties. "We hope to get a good amount of that waste. Everyone does."
Much of the trash comes in trucks, but several of the landfills have private rail spurs that let trains dump trash from special stainless-steel containers.
"You won't even notice it," said Wallace, the Amelia County administrator. "But we'll notice it financially."
The counties counting the money, meanwhile, don't care whose trash is paying the bills.
Sussex County built a new courthouse entirely with landfill-backed loans. Amelia has a new elementary school and wants a new middle school next. All of the counties that let private waste companies build large landfills can point to schools, jails or government offices built with money made from trash.
The state and local governments are doing little about out-of-state trash besides adding it to their balance sheets. But environmentalists such as Pollard are worried that Virginia is selling its rural health and beauty for a little quick-fix budgeting.
It's all perfectly legal, though, as long as landfill companies meet local zoning requirements and use proper linings and water collection systems, as required by law. And New York officials won't let their trash go to a county that doesn't want it.
"The city of New York is very sensitive to the fact that there are some communities out there that don't want our waste," said Marilyn Blohm, chairwoman of New York City's task force to close the Fresh Kills landfill.
Some localities around Virginia restrict out-of-state waste shipments. (The Roanoke Valley Resource Authority, which operates the regional landfill at Smith Gap, can accept trash only from its three member jurisdictions. That is written into the contract the authority has with Roanoke, Roanoke County and Vinton.) But the U.S. Supreme Court says trash is a commodity and that states can't limit its trade without violating the Constitution's interstate commerce clause. The only way to change that is by an act of Congress.
And Congress has tried. U.S. Sen. Charles Robb is sponsoring a bill that would guarantee local governments the power to reject imported trash. Other states that expect to see New York's trash are supporting him.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge considers it his state's highest legislative priority. Ohio wants regulatory power out of fear that hazardous waste could be hidden in shredded or baled garbage from New York.
A team of five governors from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and New Jersey have urged New York Gov. George Pataki to help.
And Virginia's Allen has stayed away, arguing that local zoning and the demands of the free market are protection enough. If Virginia counties want to import trash for the money, he's not one to stop them.
Earlier this year, Allen told the New York Times that he didn't particularly care to see New York garbage shipped to Virginia. However, "he does believe in preserving those localities' ability to make those kinds of decisions," spokeswoman Julie Overy said.
And so does U.S. Rep. Thomas Bliley, the Richmond Republican who heads the House Commerce Committee. "I support open competition on the free market," Bliley wrote Allen last year.
Waste-control legislation died last year in Bliley's committee. "As chairman of this committee," he said, "I will take a hard look at any legislation that places restrictions on the commerce clause."
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS. A trash truck dumps its load at theby CNBFresh Kills landfill on New York's Staten Island Thursday, Oct. 31,
1996. New Yorkers throw away more garbage than residents of any
other city in the world, and they have the world's biggest dump to
prove it. Graphic: Map by RT.