Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240438
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
The state Department of Waste Management will not allow the county to extend the life of its public landfill.
As a result, the Board of Supervisors will have to come up with $3 million to shut down the 50-acre facility and possibly face the politically treacherous task of finding a new place to bury the county's trash.
"Things do not go smoothly when you start siting new landfills," Butch Joyce, a West Virginia consultant told the supervisors Monday night.
Franklin County had hoped to extend the landfill's life by piling more garbage on top of trash already buried at the site off U.S. 220, south of Rocky Mount.
The plan had been to place a liner over the landfill and heap more garbage on top - essentially getting twice the use.
In a letter released Monday, Berry F. Wright Jr. of the department's staff said the underlying layer of trash could settle and "cause the liners to fail."
Joyce told the Board of Supervisors that it would have to close the landfill by July 1992, when new state regulations go into effect.
Joyce said the state's ruling leaves the supervisors with no choice but to locate a new landfill site as soon as possible.
Joyce said the options included:
Using 15 acres of undisturbed county-owned land next to the existing site as a short-term solution until a more suitable location is found.
Moving the landfill to a portion of the county's 400-acre recreation park located across a stream from the existing facility.
Conducting a countywide search for the most suitable landfill site.
Transporting most of the county's garbage to a regional landfill and maintaining a small county landfill for items a regional facility would not accept.
by CNB