DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050629

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   77 lines

SPSA: USING ASH WILL LOWER ITS COSTS

What do you do with hundreds of tons of incinerator ash?

The Southeastern Public Service Authority wants to combine the ash it generates each day at its Portsmouth waste-to-energy plant with dirt, and spread the mix on top of the regional landfill in Suffolk as cover material.

Topsoil, which now is used as a cover material, is becoming too expensive at about $6.50 a yard, said SPSA's executive director, Durwood Curling.

The plan is designed to help the agency control its operating costs.

But some local officials, business people, private waste contractors and environmentalists wonder if the move will really help the agency save money and if the agency is following state guidelines.

For years, SPSA has buried the blackened residues in the Mount Trashmore II landfill in Virginia Beach. In return, the agency pays all costs of the landfill, about $2 million a year. The agency also just financed a $4.4 million, 17-acre expansion of the landfill, mostly to accommodate more incinerator ash.

Under its proposal, SPSA would continue to pay Virginia Beach for operating Mount Trashmore II - even though little, if any, ash would go there.

Wade Kyle, Virginia Beach's solid waste director, said he received a notice from SPSA ``about 60 days ago'' that said ash no longer would be coming, effective immediately.

``I was very surprised,'' Kyle said. ``This is a pretty big deal. And I really didn't understand what they were doing - especially since we were just finishing the (landfill) expansion.''

Curling, said the move still would save the agency money, despite the recent expansion and the $2 million-a-year obligation to Virginia Beach. ``We would see a net savings in operating costs,'' he said. He could not specify, however, how much that savings would be.

But several private waste haulers have also wondered if SPSA has begun using the ash at the Suffolk landfill without state permission, considering that the agency abruptly stopped trucking its ash to Mount Trashmore II.

Curling and SPSA's deputy director John Hadfield denied that ash is being used as cover in violation of state rules. They said that until they obtain state approval, the blackened wastes are instead being sprinkled underground as ``filler'' within the Suffolk landfill.

Gaps and crevices in the landfill must be shored up to control gases and odor. So instead of using expensive soil, SPSA for now is using incinerator ash, Hadfield said.

Under state regulations, active landfills must be covered with 6 inches of soil at the end of each working day. A cover keeps rodents and birds from scavenging for garbage, controls odors and restricts potentially explosive methane gas from escaping.

Alternatives to soil are allowed as cover, but only with state permission.

A state environmental inspector also said he found no ash violations when he toured Suffolk last month. But not everyone is convinced.

``That's bull,'' said John C. Holland Jr., whose private, family landfill also is in Suffolk. ``I've been out there (at SPSA's landfill) and I've seen them laying down ash. Why else would they suddenly haul that stuff out there?''

Holland raised his objections to the proposed change in ash policy at last month's SPSA board meeting. The board took no action on his comments.

To offset soil costs, several Virginia cities and counties have tried alternative cover material. Used-tire scraps. Synthetic tarp. Ash from power plants. But never incinerator ash, John Godfrey, a state environmental engineer, said.

SPSA, however, has tried this experiment before. It failed. In 1994, the ash turned ``very soupy'' when it rained and ``just didn't hold to the ground very well,'' Godfrey said.

The experiment was ordered stopped by state regulators after they learned that SPSA had not obtained proper state approval, Godfrey said.

SPSA officials insist that the ash has been adequately screened for eight toxic metals and that none of the material would wash off the landfill and sully wetlands in the nearby Great Dismal Swamp.

SPSA has asked the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to approve the use of incinerator ash. The application is under review, Godfrey said.

``We still haven't made a decision. It's still very much up in the air.'' ILLUSTRATION: VP MAP

SUFFOLK

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