THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 20, 1996 TAG: 9607200254
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HARBORTON LENGTH: 109 lines
People in Harborton don't want Tangier's trash.
Nothing personal. They know the 30-year-deep pile of junked cars, appliances and incinerator ash needs to be cleaned off the island. And it has to come ashore somewhere.
Just not in Harborton.
``An armada to sink the barges is in order,'' Kay Havens joked at a gathering of townspeople on Thursday. ``Or a boat blockade.''
Her husband, Frank Havens, didn't laugh. Havens, who won a gold medal for canoeing at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, is a leader of the Harborton Health and Safety Committee.
The group believes it is grossly inappropriate - possibly dangerous, destructive and in violation of state transportation laws - to haul that much waste through the narrow streets of his village.
``The easiest thing is to dump it on Harborton,'' said Havens, disgusted. ``We're cheap.''
Others think the villagers are creating a tempest in a teapot.
``It's much ado about very little of daggone anything,'' said Accomack County purchasing agent Jack Adams, who is helping to organize the cleanup. ``It's an unbelievable overreaction, almost hysteria.''
The controversy began a month ago, when the state Department of Environmental Quality ordered Tangier to clean up its dump, which doesn't measure up to state standards. Money to pay for the project, estimated at more than $50,000, will come from the Virginia Ecological Remediation Fund.
Adams helped Tangier negotiate a contract to remove the trash and take it to a landfill in Accomack. He said Tangier's incinerator ash, which looks like crushed coal and doesn't blow around, will be scooped into dumpsters and taken by barge across the Chesapeake to the mainland.
Adams wasn't able to estimate how many loads of ash would be shipped. He said there may be as much as 3,500 cubic yards of stuff to haul, including 14 junked cars. The bulk of the waste, he said, consists of ``white goods,'' - old washers, dryers, refrigerators and the like.
``I wish I could pin down the number of trips it's going to take,'' Adams said. A good guess, based on the volume of trash, would be about 42 barge-loads, with more than 160 flatbed truck trips through the village over the next eight weeks.
``I'm angry and upset,'' said Donald Hart, Harborton's representative on the county board of supervisors. ``It's dangerous, and it's a hardship on these people. It will adversely affect their property to have that happening in their front yards.''
Hart didn't pull any punches while talking to the villagers on Thursday.
``If there's any property damage, I want the county to pay for it,'' he said.
Three bayside towns in Accomack County have water deep enough to handle the barges: Harborton, Onancock and Saxis. Adams said Fox Brothers, the contractor hauling Tangier's trash, will use Harborton because it is closer to the island than Saxis, and closer to a landfill.
``It's 26 percent cheaper,'' said county administrator Keith Bull.
The original plan was to bring the barges to the property of Chesapeake Corp., a wood products manufacturer with a deepwater pier in Harborton. But the company changed its mind after 60 of the town's residents signed a petition asking Chesapeake not to let the barges dock there.
The county is hoping Chesapeake will reconsider. If not, Accomack will allow the barges to anchor and unload at the county-owned fishing dock in Harborton.
Even watermen with relatives on Tangier don't think that's a good idea.
``I don't think this dock would hold it,'' said one, who wouldn't give his name. He pointed to the dock's supports. ``These poles have been here forever.''
Kevin Williams of Melfa and his 12-year-old son Jonathan don't want the trash to come over Harborton's dock, either.
``It will cut out my use,'' said Williams. ``This is the only spot we can fish.''
Back in the county offices, Jack Adams said the six-wheel flatbeds won't have any problem negotiating the narrow, aging pier.
``Weight's not an issue,'' he said. ``We're not carrying that much weight. It's bulky stuff, not heavy.''
But the Harborton Health and Safety Committee doesn't believe a word of it. What liability will county taxpayers incur, they ask, if it allows Fox Brothers to use the dock?
Supervisor Donald Hart suspects that Harborton was chosen because it's not an incorporated town and has no government of its own to regulate the port.
All the negatives are falling in his district, said Hart, while all the positives of the island cleanup fall to the Atlantic district, which includes Tangier and the county docking facility in Saxis.
``They're using the excuse that Tangier is five miles closer to Harborton,'' he said. ``They didn't use that excuse when the district lines were drawn.''
Accomack's board of supervisors voted Wednesday to provide a police escort for the trash trucks to ensure the villagers' safety. That's a big, potentially costly, promise. Tangier's initial cleanup will last about eight weeks, but officials expect to haul the island's future trash through Harborton as well.
``And the county's going to have police there ever time they roll off the dock for the next 100 years?'' scoffed resident Russ Dunn. ``If you believe that, you'll believe the Easter Bunny will lead them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK, The
Virginian-Pilot
Residents of Harborton on the Eastern Shore fear damage to their
pier, and town, when barges from Tangier unload incinerator ash and
junk onto trucks that will carry it through town to a landfill.
Photo by CHRISTOPHER REDDICK, The Virginian-Pilot
Russ Dunn, left, and Joe Adams measure the width of Harborton's main
street. Residents of the Eastern Shore village say their streets are
too narrow to safely handle trucks that will haul Tangier Island
trash from their fishing pier to a landfill.
Map
KEYWORDS: TANGIER ISLAND LANDFILL by CNB