THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 13, 1995 TAG: 9504130391
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER AND MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
A $300 million plan to expand South Hampton Roads' regional landfill for trash needs into the next century appears to be in jeopardy, according to the city of Suffolk, which would host the proposed 525-acre dump.
In a recent memo to City Council members, the Suffolk Department of Public Works warns that the expansion will probably flunk an environmental review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
For nearly two years, the Corps has been studying whether the massive project, near the Great Dismal Swamp, would unduly harm wetlands and wildlife including black bears and endangered rattlesnakes.
A rejection, if forthcoming, would pose a messy and somewhat alarming question: Once the existing regional landfill fills up, expected in the year 2001, where will all the garbage go?
One answer also can be found in the Suffolk memo. It states that the Corps of Engineers will probably recommend construction of a new landfill on less environmentally sensitive land in Isle of Wight County, about two miles north of Windsor off Route 258.
However, this option would cost $180 million more than the expansion plan, money that area businesses and homeowners would have to shoulder through higher garbage rates.
Another option would be for the Southeastern Public Service Authority, or SPSA, which handles most garbage in the region, to cap its landfill and contract with private waste-disposal companies.
The Corps declined to comment on the memo, saying it has not yet decided a course of action. ``We're still working on it,'' spokesman Bill Brown said Tuesday. Brown said a public announcement should be made ``in several weeks.''
But Suffolk Public Works Director Thomas Hines said recent conversations between his staff and SPSA indicated that the corps already has made up its mind.
``I hope we're wrong, and we may be,'' Hines said. ``But from what we've heard and from what's been bounced back and forth . . . it tends to build up an attitude of negativism that this expansion ain't going to be approved.''
Anticipating a rejection, Suffolk has started socking away $150,000 a year to haul city trash elsewhere. Since the existing 308-acre landfill is in Suffolk, SPSA does not require the city to pay tipping fees.
Hines estimates the exemption saves Suffolk about $1 million a year.
If SPSA builds a new landfill in Isle of Wight, the county likewise would get a free pass for its garbage. County Administrator Douglas Caskey estimated that the move would save businesses and residents $60 million over the 20-year life of the project.
The landfill would occupy about 2,800 acres in Isle of Wight County. The property, all of which is zoned appropriately for a landfill, would destroy some upland forests and about 30 acres of wetlands, according to preliminary plans. No endangered species have been located on the site, Caskey said.
By contrast, the expansion plan in Suffolk would ruin an estimated 377 forested wetlands that drain into the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, located just south of the project off U.S. Routes 13, 58 and 460.
The federally protected southeastern shrew and the state protected canebrake rattlesnake are known to inhabit the area. And state wildlife officials have testified that there probably are more endangered species within the expansion zone.
At a public hearing on the proposal in 1993, Suffolk residents and environmentalists also expressed concern for a burgeoning black bear population in the area, as well as for birds that might be flushed into the flight paths of the privately owned Hampton Roads Airport, located just east of the expansion site.
Later that same year, three federal agencies criticized the proposed expansion, which has effectively prolonged and possibly killed the proposal. Thus far, no state or federal agency has supported the expansion.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service all said SPSA needs to review alternative sites. State environmental agencies and local environmental groups have also formally opposed the plan, saying endangered plants and animals would be threatened.
However, the cities of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, which are served by SPSA, as are Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Franklin and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties, have endorsed the plan.
SPSA Executive Director Durwood Curling said this week he has heard nothing from the Corps about its pending decision. He said the expansion continues to be the most attractive option, mostly because it costs the least and would require few transportation changes for incoming garbage trucks.
He said if the expansion is rejected, another option would be to cap the existing landfill when it closes and contract with waste-disposal companies.
``I'm sure that's what the private sector would like to see us do,'' Curling said, referring to SPSA's ongoing trash war with several companies that have opened private landfills in central Virginia and are vying for business in South Hampton Roads.
Most, if not all, of the public works departments throughout the region were unaware of the landfill expansion's bleak prognosis.
``Our approach,'' said John Keifer, Norfolk public works director, ``would be to wait and see what happens.''
Wade Kyle, Virginia Beach's administrator of waste management, said Virginia Beach would probably feel little effect if the Suffolk landfill should close early.
Almost all of Virginia Beach's waste - about 155,000 tons per year - goes to SPSA's refuse-derived fuel plant in Portsmouth. In addition, 35,000 tons of yard waste are brought to SPSA's mulching plant in Virginia Beach. And more than 200,000 tons of commercially generated waste goes to either the SPSA landfill or to privately owned landfills. ILLUSTRATION: LANDFILL OPTIONS
1. Expansion site
All Hampton Roads cities have endorsed this least-expensive option,
but it may pose a threat to wetlands.
2. Isle of Wight site
A new landfill would cost $180 million more than the expansion plan,
but probably wouldn't threaten wildlife.
3. Private sites
The SPSA could cap its landfill and contract with private
waste-disposal companies.
EXISTING LANDFILL
[Color Photo]
PAUL AIKEN
Staff
The existing regional landfill in Suffolk is projected to be full by
the year 2001.
Map
KEN WRIGHT/Staff
KEYWORDS: LANDFILL WETLANDS by CNB