DATE: Wednesday, June 25, 1997              TAG: 9706250010

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   79 lines

SPSA LANDFILL EXPAND IT REGIONAL WASTE AGENCY IS BEST CHOICE

In about three years, the Southeastern Public Service Authority landfill in Suffolk will be full.

Today, the SPSA governing board will decide what to do about it.

The best solution is to expand the existing landfill in Suffolk, a move that would provide capacity for the region's waste through about 2015.

The other option is to invite private waste companies to bid on the region's waste disposal.

SPSA sought private bids two years ago, when it planned to expand the present landfill enough to handle the region's waste for five to seven years.

An independent consultant's analysis showed that the low private bid would cost a fourth more - $8 million more - than SPSA would spend expanding the landfill and taking the trash itself.

Since then, SPSA has decided on a larger expansion, providing capacity for 13 to 15 years of waste. Roughly doubling the expansion capacity upped the projected cost from $10 million to $17 million.

The process of soliciting bids and having a private consultant determine the best deal would cost about $70,000. There is no reason to believe private bids would come in substantially cheaper this time.

SPSA already owns the land needed for expansion. It expects to get the needed landfill permit this August. No wetlands would be destroyed, since the land formerly was farmed.

Expanding at the present location is the cheapest option.

A second consideration was brought home by a banner headline in Friday's Virginian-Pilot: ``State probes spill of bloody trash,'' The trash, which reportedly included needles, IV bags and bloody sheets, was being shipped by Waste Management, one of three large private waste companies pressuring SPSA to seek private bids a second time.

By law, the waste, which came from New York, should have gone to a special incinerator for medical trash - at a cost more than 10 times higher than simply dumping it into a landfill, concealed with other waste. Instead, the bloody trash was headed for a private landfill in Sussex County.

If Southampton Roads waste is mixed at private landfills with waste from the Northeast, localities could be hit with Superfund cleanup costs down the road if illegal wastes are later discovered. A spokesman for private waste companies said they carry insurance to protect clients from such costs, but an advantage to expanding the present landfill is that SPSA would continue to control what goes into it.

Raising the stakes on any decision affecting the region's waste is the fact SPSA's debt is $260 million, and under contracts signed with SPSA, localities served by the agency are liable for that debt.

Private companies argue that expanding the landfill adds to SPSA debt.

SPSA responds that, if the present landfill is expanded, fees for taking trash there would reduce the overall debt to about $10 million by the time the expanded portion is full.

At that time, South Hampton Roads localities will have to re-evaluate what to do with trash in the 21st century.

SPSA has proposed building a landfill next to the Great Dismal Swamp. That proposal is strongly opposed by environmentalists. We're not found of it either.

If SPSA can't find a more environmentally friendly spot, privatization might be the best route. But that decision need not be made till the expanded portion of the present landfill is full, around 2015.

One final consideration. SPSA has done what it was formed to do. Durwood Curling, the only executive director the agency has ever had, is president of the Solid Waste Association of North America, an indication of the respect of its peers. SPSA's rates are cheaper than most waste agencies in the state, though higher than those in Hampton and Newport News. SPSA is repaying bonds it had to sell in order to create itself, at a time, in the late '70s, when inexpensive private waste disposal was unavailable.

SPSA's environmental record so far is good. A remarkable 55 percent of waste that SPSA collects is recycled or burned to produce energy. The agency has an established program for teaching school children about waste and recycling.

Expanding the present SPSA landfill is the best plan. After SPSA debts are nearly repaid, well down the road, another hard look will have to be taken at the best way to handle the region's waste.

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