Thursday, June 24, 2004

County looking into running the landfill locally

Board continues negotiations with potential operators

By Jamie Turner
Staff Writer

Page County continued negotiations with possible new operators for Battle Creek Landfill this week as Supervisors Charles C. Ballard (R-Dist. 3) and Carol Lee Fischer Strickler (D-Dist. 5) traveled to Richmond to meet with investors representing current landfill operator National Waste Services (NWS) of Virginia.

The Page Board of Supervisors interviewed three prospective replacement for NWS earlier this month — Republic Services, a Delaware-based corporation with headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Allied Waste of Scottsdale, Ariz.; and Enviro Solutions Inc., which is based out of Northern Virginia.

The talks began after NWS and its financial backer, Capitol Source Financing of Maryland, decided to sell its stake at Battle Creek to a new operator. This followed NWS declaring bankruptcy and the state Department of Environmental Quality shutting down Battle Creek in early March.

But according to Ballard, all the interested operators want to keep tonnage levels at an average of at least 1,000 tons per day.

“Tonnage is the big issue,” Ballard said. “They want to see the tonnage stay the same as it was before.”

Before Battle Creek closed, NWS was dumping about 1,500 tons of waste per day.

This has citizens serving on a county Landfill Advisory Committee urging supervisors to explore running Battle Creek as a local facility without a third party as an operator. Committee members Barbara Coulter and Jo Ann Smeltzer said this option gives the county more control over issues like tonnage.

Engineer John McNair of Waynesboro plans to present a cost analysis and feasibility study on reopening Battle Creek as a county-run facility this July. McNair had planned to make his presentation last week, but said he hadn’t received all the information required to complete his study. He declined to comment on any information he’d gathered so far.

Still, anticipation is building for McNair’s presentation.

“This landfill committe can be a big help in gathering information and exploring all of the options including the operation of a regional landfill. I am looking forward to hearing John McNair’s report,” said Coulter. “I think we need to seriously consider all of the options.”

Coulter, along with other members of the Landfill Advisory Committee, made a push to explore the locally-run option. Now the members want to stay in the loop.

“I hope the board will make no decision before the landfill committee reviews [McNair’s] report and gets back with the board,” said Smeltzer. “There are options out there to consider.”

The advisory committee has five citizens, one from each district in the county, plus two county representatives and two officials from NWS. The citizens include Coulter, Smeltzer, B.A. Womack, Tom Barbour and Richard Kibler.

County Solid Waste Coordinator Rick Anderson and landfill employee Linda Minke are also on the advisory board. NWS has not attended a meeting to date.

The committee was started by the county board this year to offer input on landfill issues and help develop a strategy for local solid waste disposal.

The organization of the committee hit a snag when the DEQ pulled Battle Creek’s operating permit on March 10. But the committee is now starting to get active as the county hashes out plans to reopen the local landfill.

For almost five months, Page County has been involved in court negotiations and closed-door bargaining with NWS and Capital Source.

The groups now appear to be at an impasse. That impasse, according to Ballard, revolves around tonnage.

Capital Source and potential operators are looking at limits of 1,000-plus tons per day. At the same time, local Landfill Advisory Committee members are calling for limits of 250 to 500 tons.

We can be reached at pagenews@shentel.net.