THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407140176
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The city took a first step Tuesday toward legalizing its dumping operations at an Oceana Boulevard borrow pit, when the City Council approved a use permit for a landfill operation on the property.
For the past seven years the municipal highway department has been dumping construction debris into the pit without proper permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
Art Shaw, engineer for the operations division of the city's Public Works Department, said at Tuesday's council meeting that the city had been dumping for years under a tacit agreement with the corps.
That changed recently, he said, ``when the corps decided to exercise their jurisdiction because it was in a wetlands area.''
``And . . . we didn't get the Corps of Engineers' permit before we started using it?'' asked a testy Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.
``We had been operating the pit for seven years and the corps had been aware that we were operating it,'' Shaw replied. ``We've been doing what I classify as housekeeping - belatedly - by getting permits.''
City Attorney Leslie L. Lilley came to Shaw's rescue. ``There was a time when the city didn't have to comply with all the ordinances and regulations,'' he said. ``Now, we'll obtain all the permits necessary. . . ''
``I think this is a case where the city has to do not only as we say, but as we do,'' replied Oberndorf icily.
The corps had ordered the city to stop dumping concrete, sand and rock into the site until it completes the permitting process, which could take anywhere from two weeks to several months.
The city's omission was brought to the attention of the corps by John Baillio of Baillio Sand Co., who was forced to wait two years to get a permit to fill the other end of the same lake. The city, meanwhile, had failed to observe the same requirements.
Baillio, who was not at the Tuesday council session, said his intent was not to embarrass the city, but to hasten his own permitting process. He had applied for a conditional use permit in April 1992, and it was granted in February 1994. The city applied in April 1994 and the council approved it Tuesday.
The city owns the southern portion of the 8-acre borrow pit and Baillio owns the northern portion. Both were preparing applications to the corps.
The City Council also took action Tuesday on the following:
STORAGE YARD: A use permit was granted to the Williams Holding Corp. to operate a bulk storage yard for heavy equipment, vehicles and building materials on 54 acres off Military Highway, just north of Alexandria Drive.
GLENWOOD HOMES: The council voted 7-2 to approve zoning and variance requests from R.G. Moore Building Corp. to increase the housing density on seven acres of undeveloped residential property in the Glenwood subdivision. Attorney John Richardson said the developer planned to erect 32 single-family houses on the lots. Two would be served by city water and the rest would be hooked up to wells. Voting against the measure were Mayor Oberndorf and Councilman Robert K. Dean.
RUDEE INLET DREDGING: The Public Works Department received tentative approval to extend a current contract with Cottrell Engineering of Chesapeake to dredge the mouth of Rudee Inlet. The dredging work, which normally begins in early spring, was delayed this year by two factors, said public works engineer Carl Thoren. One was a now-settled bidding dispute over the project. The other was the Army Corps of Engineers' sudden decision last year to shift funding for Rudee Inlet to another project in Philadelphia. The council decided to ask the contractor to delay dredging work at Rudee Inlet until after the Neptune Festival in late September. by CNB