
DATE: Thursday, November 27, 1997           TAG: 9711270699

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   81 lines

SPSA VOTES TO ENLARGE LANDFILL BY 50 ACRES $11.5 MILLION PROJECT WILL TAKE AREA'S TRASH THROUGH 2015.

Ending nearly three years of debate, the Southeastern Public Service Authority voted Wednesday to build an $11.5 million landfill expansion that will hold most of the region's garbage through the year 2015.

The 50-acre project in Suffolk, called Cell Five, should end fears that South Hampton Roads will run out of space to bury its trash by the turn of the century.

Cell Five is scheduled to take two years to complete - just in time to replace the existing regional landfill, also in Suffolk, estimated to close in early 2000.

Approval of the expansion, by a 7-1 vote of SPSA's board of directors, represents a key victory for SPSA and a major blow to private waste companies, which spent months and thousands of dollars lobbying against the project.

National waste conglomerates, including Browning-Ferris Industries and USA Waste Inc., had argued that Cell Five would cost too much money and is not needed. Instead, they sought to truck millions of tons of local trash to their landfills on the Peninsula, where storage space is plentiful.

But a financial analysis released Wednesday showed that SPSA customers in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Franklin and Isle of Wight and Southampton counties would save from $18 million to $43 million over the next 15 years by building Cell Five instead of hauling wastes to private landfills.

``It is clearly the most cost-effective solution,'' said Conoly Phillips, a Norfolk city councilman and chairman of SPSA's board of directors.

Virginia Beach board member Michael Barrett, who cast the lone vote against the project, said he wanted to wait a month to consider the financial analysis.

Designed to hold 3.7 million tons of trash, the expansion is expected to take care of local trash needs for 13 to 15 years. It will be built next to the existing regional landfill, across Route 58 from the Great Dismal Swamp.

E.V. Williams Inc., a Chesapeake-based construction company, won the right to build the project with a low bid of $9.7 million. Added engineering and contingency costs push the overall price to about $11.5 million, said Durwood Curling, SPSA's executive director.

This figure stunned most project opponents and supporters, given that earlier estimates ran as high as $17 million. Philip Abraham, a Richmond-based lobbyist for private waste haulers, even suggested Wednesday that SPSA was ``cutting corners,'' especially in environmental protection, to lower costs - a charge the waste authority labeled ridiculous.

``We were surprised, too, pleasantly surprised'' by the low bid, Curling said.

Another new wrinkle revealed Wednesday that further deflects criticism is that SPSA will pay cash for the project.

Just months ago, SPSA said it would have to borrow money to complete Cell Five. Opponents argued then that the agency, which has compiled $250 million in long-standing debts, should not borrow more.

But as Curling explained, the lower project cost allowed SPSA to justify tapping unspent reserves; in the end, the agency did not need to take out another loan.

The expansion will be built below the water line, a tricky task from an environmental standpoint, given the proximity of garbage to groundwater supplies. Contractors will dig down 40 feet before laying soil, synthetic clay and finally a plastic liner to form the bottom of the landfill.

Abraham questioned the wisdom of this technique, especially the use of synthetic clay, which he described as environmentally suspect. He noted how the state of Ohio is wary of the technology and has advised against its use pending further testing.

SPSA officials countered that the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has approved the project and issued a water-quality protection permit.

They also said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency likes synthetic clay liners. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

LANDFILL

Capacity: Designed to hold 3.7 million tons of trash, the

landfill expansion, across Route 58 from the Great Dismal Swamp, is

expected to take care of local needs for the next 15 years.

Cost: According to the city, the landfill will save SPSA

customers from $18 million to $43 million because waste won't have

to be hauled to private landfills.

Timetable: The landfill is scheduled to be built in two years,

the same time as the existing regional landfill closes.