DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050635

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW DOLAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   75 lines

ISSUES RISE FROM AREA'S TRASH PUBLIC IRE HALTS LANDFILL EXPANSION

Months after Elbow Road residents began complaining about a controversial landfill in their neighborhood, the city has withdrawn its approval of the Greenbrier-area landfill's expansion plans.

State Department of Environmental Quality officials received a letter Wednesday from Chesapeake Deputy City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee, asserting that the landfill may violate current laws.

``The City conducted an investigation to determine whether the landfill is operating in accordance with applicable local laws,'' Cuffee wrote in an Aug. 27 letter to Hassan Vakili, director of waste operations for the Department of Environmental Quality.

The landfill, which could rise to a height two times that of Virginia Beach's Mount Trashmore under the expansion proposal, is operated by Elbow Road Farm Inc. on land owned by Daniel L. Thrasher Jr.

``As a result of this investigation, the City has learned that the Thrasher landfill is not currently operated in compliance with'' the Chesapeake landfill ordinance enacted in 1994, Cuffee wrote.

Warren Thrasher, son of the property owner, said Wednesday that he had not been informed of the alleged violations.

``They were out here about a month ago,'' Thrasher said of city zoning inspectors.

``And they didn't tell me anything was wrong then.''

Residents of several neighborhoods, including those that now have an unobstructed view of the 70-foot dump, began inquiring last year when trees cloaking the landfill were removed. Citizens like Cindy and Ron Bray, who can see the hill through their living-room window, filed formal complaints with DEQ soon after.

Inspectors have found violations at the landfill in recent years, but DEQ officials have said the problems have always been quickly corrected.

City Attorney Ronald S. Hallman said the landfill's operational problems lay in its lack of a site and restoration plan, which would provide the city with information about what would happen to the site after the landfill is closed.

``No, I don't think we would move to take away the use permit. . . . They would have to demonstrate a continual and wanton violation of the law; we have looked at that, and we don't have sufficient grounds to pursue that,'' Hallman said, adding that the city has never revoked a use permit.

The city also rescinded its 1992 approval of the landfill's expansion from eight to 29 acres, an approval sought again by the Thrashers this year to buttress their state application.

It was the first time since the city granted a landfill permit in 1979 that the city has objected to the Thrashers' plans.

Though the city has now taken the position that the landfill should be evaluated based on current, more stringent local law, the Thrashers may be able to avoid new city rules by saying that their prior city approvals in the 1970s, '80s and '90s are good enough.

``I am asking the attorney general for clarification and guidance, but I'm not sure if the letter will have any impact,'' Vakili said Wednesday. ``If they certified this before . . . we have to determine whether the change in the local law would affect this application.''

The landfill had gone largely unnoticed for nearly 20 years. In 1979, the city issued a conditional use permit for a 8.3-acre landfill on the Thrasher property. Five years later, the city approved the landfill's expansion to 29 acres, though corresponding state approval had not yet been sought.

DEQ officials are still reviewing the first part of the Trashers' new expansion application and will hold a public meeting on the application in Chesapeake on Wednesday. MEMO: TO LEARN MORE

Neighborhoods surrounding the Elbow Road landfill have invited

representatives from the Department of Environmental Quality to discuss

the expansion plan with the public at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the

Episcopal Church of the Messiah, 816 Kempsville Road, in Chesapeake. ILLUSTRATION: VP MAP

CHESAPEAKE

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