DATE: Friday, August 1, 1997                TAG: 9708010712

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   70 lines

NO CITY PERMIT HAS BEEN SOUGHT FOR PROPOSED GARBAGE TERMINAL

After South Norfolk residents cried foul, the city changed its laws last week, requiring that a proposed cargo terminal that would import trash on the banks of the Elizabeth River come before the City Council and receive a permit.

So far, the city has not received a conditional-use permit application for the terminal, city planning director Brent R. Nielson said Thursday.

But the plan for a trash-filled cargo transfer station, known as Chesaport, would also need environmental approvals from city, state and federal agencies.

Denial of those permits would stop the application cold; decisions could be reached as soon as this month.

W.W. Phil and Brenda Robinson, co-owners of Environmental Solutions Inc. and Chesaport developers, said that the process is one of give-and-take.

The Richmond-based Environmental Solutions announced plans in June to locate a trash terminal on 23 acres along the Elizabeth near Interstate 464.

``We have only been in one meeting, and that was with the city's wetlands board,'' Phil Robinson said. ``We are in the negotiating stage.''

Still, the city determined that Chesaport's erosion and sediment control plan was ``not in order for our approval at this time,'' according to a letter from the city dated July 28. The city's Public Works Department cited 21 items that need correcting and asked that the modified plans be resubmitted.

The city's Public Works Department also declined to evaluate a previous site plan for the project on Monday, citing a new city ordinance that requires that a business that wants to import trash must first receive a permit.

But the environmental applications sketch out some details.

The port's entrance would be nestled between the Jordan Bridge and the Norfolk Portsmouth Beltline Railroad along the banks of the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch. A J.G. Wilson water tower now marks the site, with several derelict buildings below.

Plans for the terminal include the construction of a 50-foot-by-50-foot service pier with two breasting moorings called dolphins about 100 feet to the right and left of the pier head. An 8-foot-wide catwalk would connect the pier to each dolphin.

Environmental Solutions also proposes dredging a channel to a depth of 22 feet. The channel would be about 400 feet wide and 600 feet long.

Approximately 3,700 cubic yards of intertidal wetlands and 138,000 cubic yards of subaqueous river bottom would be removed, according to submitted plans.

On July 3, the environmental staff of the city's department of inspections recommended denying Environmental Solutions' application to dredge an entrance channel and construct a concrete pier, citing potential damage to wetlands of ``high ecological signifance.''

The Robinsons said they are working to reduce the amount of dredging in order to gain the city's approval.

The Chesaport application before the city's wetlands board, whose members will have the final say on wetlands, is scheduled for review on Aug. 20.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Marine Resources Commission are also evaluating the Chesaport plan on environmental and navigational considerations.

The corps' public comment period on the application is scheduled to conclude on Aug. 17, and a decision should be made within two weeks after that. ILLUSTRATION: TO COMMENT

Comments on environmental aspects of the Chesaport application

before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Virginia Marine

Resources Commission must be submitted in writing to:

The Virginia Marine Resources Commission, Environmental Division,

P.O. Box 756, Newport News, Va. 23607.

For questions, call Rick Henderson at the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers at (757) 441-7653 or Laura Grignano at VMRC at (757)

247-2209.