DATE: Thursday, June 19, 1997               TAG: 9706190432

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:  106 lines

FOR PORTSMOUTH, TRASH HAS THE ODOR OF MONEY

The unmistakable odor of garbage wafted over downtown Portsmouth and Olde Towne on Tuesday night.

``It was quite rank,'' said Michael Hester, an Olde Towne resident.

It could be the smell of things to come. Garbage from New York and other Northeastern states is increasingly being hauled to newly opened Virginia landfills. Because transporting garbage by barge can be more cost-effective than moving it by truck, Hampton Roads might soon see a steady stream of shipments.

Tuesday night, empty containers that had carried garbage to a Brunswick County landfill were being loaded back aboard a barge at a new cargo terminal beside downtown Portsmouth for the return trip north.

The month-old operation has generated some complaints from Portsmouth residents, but it's also generating jobs and revenue for the cash-strapped city.

Officials at the companiesinvolved say the terminal near downtown is being used only for a short-term feasibility study. They also said they're working on the odor problem with industrial deodorants.

Portsmouth City Manager Ronald W. Massie said he's keeping an eye - and a nose - on the operation. He said he can veto cargos at the terminal, which the city leases to the operator.

``I am not going to have a public debate on the appropriateness of garbage,'' Massie said. ``If it becomes a problem, it's gone.''

While his office has received a few complaints, Massie said he's been going to the terminal frequently and has only really smelled the garbage on the dock.

So far about five barges, each carrying about 3,000 tons of garbage, have unloaded hundreds of sealed, truck-sized containers. The containers are loaded onto tractor-trailers that haul them out Interstate 264 and Route 58 to a huge landfill in Brunswick County.

``Garbage has a way of offending people,'' said Bob Votino, operations manager of Eagle Enterprises Inc., the company that is moving the garbage. ``We're complying with all federal and state regulations. We're not doing anything illegal. We're not harming the environment.''

Eagle Enterprises, based in New York, is studying the feasibility of shipping municipal waste mostly by barge instead of by truck, Votino said.

It is using Southside International Terminal, a newly opened cargo terminal, because it was available and had ready access to roads to the Brunswick County landfill, which is owned by Allied Wastes Industries Inc.

``They definitely will not be there long-term,'' said Doug Kahle, an attorney/spokesman for Southside International Terminal Inc. ``If the logistics work out, we'll move them to a new terminal in a less-populated area of the city where Portsmouth will continue to get the revenue.''

Kahle said the facility is not appropriate because it wasn't set up to handle a heavy volume of containers efficiently.

The study should be complete in about 30 to 60 days. The company then will decide whether to continue with barge shipments, Votino said.

The garbage is ordinary municipal wastes, containing no hazardous or toxic substances, Votino said. It comes from Long Island, Brooklyn, upstate New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

It is being loaded on barges in Philadelphia and towed down the Delaware Bay, through a canal, then down the Chesapeake Bay.

While the containers are open-topped for easy loading and unloading, they are sealed for shipment so that no fluid can escape.

The operation is generating jobs and revenue in Portsmouth, but it's also raising a stink.

``Last night the smell was not acceptable for a residential neighborhood,'' said Jim Smith, an Olde Towne resident who called Massie to complain and wants the city to communicate better with residents.

``I know the city of Portsmouth needs the tax revenue, but somehow it doesn't feel quite right that we're transporting garbage through downtown,'' Hester said.

Hester, who runs by the docks every day, said some days it's been strong and other days he hasn't noticed it. It was strongest Tuesday night when empty trash containers were being loaded on the barge for the trip back north.

``I wonder if it's the empties that are the problem,'' Hester said.

Votino said the company is experimenting with various deodorizers to cut the smell, though he admitted that the first few barge loads were not deodorized. ``We're trying to see what works best,'' he said.

For now, the shipments have created about 25 jobs in Portsmouth, Votino and Kahle said. The jobs include truckers, crane operators and other dockside work. Eagle Enterprises even has eight workers from the Portsmouth Sheriff's office work-release program for prisoners, Votino said.

Southside International Terminal leases the terminal property at the old Coast Guard station from the city. It will pay a minimum of $100,000 this year for it, Kahle said. The lease payments increase as the terminal's cargo volume rises, he said.

Portsmouth is ``making a little money off a site that has been unproductive for us for years and has been an eyesore,'' Massie said.

``Economically it's a wonderful shot in the arm for the city of Portsmouth,'' said Ray Robbins, vice president and general manager of Bay Towing Corp., the Norfolk tug firm that is towing the garbage barges.

Barging the garbage in containers is ``probably one of the safest ways to ship it,'' Robbins said.

Lt. Cmdr. Eric Washburn of the Coast Guard's local Marine Safety Office said it is extremely rare for a container to come off a ship or a barge underway.

Bob Maroon, state director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said his organization hasn't looked at the issue. ILLUSTRATION: IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Empty garbage containers are loaded onto a barge at Portsmouth's

Southside International Terminal for their return north. The

containers once held trash that was trucked to a landfill in

Brunswick County.

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