DATE: Tuesday, June 17, 1997                TAG: 9706170304

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ROBERT LITTLE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   61 lines

NEW YORK HAS NEW EXPORT BOUND FOR VIRGINIA: TRASH COME JULY, UP TO 70 TRUCKLOADS A DAY OF BRONX GARBAGE WILL HIT SUSSEX.

In its first step toward closing the world's largest landfill, New York City has selected a new place to dump trash - Virginia.

Starting July 1, about 1,750 tons - as many as 70 truckloads - of residential garbage from the Bronx will be trucked each day to the Sussex County landfill in Waverly. Sussex County, on the edge of Western Tidewater, is west of Isle of Wight County.

The three-year deal will cost New York City about $86 million, paid to Waste Management of New York at the rate of $51.72 a ton.

And for its role, Sussex County won't get any more money than if New York's trash were staying put - $2.8 million a year.

Still more New York trash could be on its way. New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, promised to close the landfill in GOP-rich Staten Island by 2002. The mammoth Fresh Kills Landfill receives all of New York City's residential waste - more than 13,000 tons a day.

Rural communities throughout Virginia are clamoring for a share, willing to trade space in their landfills for money to buy new buildings and sewers.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, worry just how trash-happy Virginia will become.

``Gluttony and greed are two of the seven deadly sins, and garbage as economic development has both those qualities,'' said Albert Pollard, lobbyist for the Sierra Club of Virginia.

Selling landfill space to other states is not a new concept in Virginia, which already takes in some 1.7 million tons of outside waste every year. Most of it goes into large, privately owned landfills in rural counties that tolerate the trade because of the millions in ``tipping fees'' they can collect.

Sussex is no different. Atlantic Waste Inc. gets to dump out-of-state trash in Waverly, and the county collects $2.8 million.

But Sussex County used to get $6 a ton, and officials renegotiated last December because Atlantic Waste said it was losing business. The New York contract would have meant about $3.5 million at the old rate. The New York Times quoted New York officials Sunday as saying they were surprised the bids were so low.

``The county chose to be a good business partner,'' said Sussex County Administrator Mary E. Jones. ``It's a very competitive business.''

All of the counties that agree to house private landfills can point to schools, jails or government offices built with money made from trash. Sussex built a new courthouse entirely with landfill-backed loans. Amelia County has a new elementary school and wants a new middle school next.

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 - nearly 6.6 million tons last year, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

Officials in Pennsylvania and Ohio, another large importer of waste, have fought for congressional controls on interstate transfers of trash. Virginia lawmakers have not, considering it a free-trade issue.

The next New York City garbage contract - 2,500 tons a day from Long Island or Queens - should be awarded late next year. ILLUSTRATION: SITE OF LANDFILL

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