According to SPSA officials, two sites
in Portsmouth – one next to the Virginia Marine Terminal and a second on
undeveloped land just south of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard – are in
consideration.
Chesapeake officials say that a third privately owned site in their
city also is in the running.
When complete, the trash terminal would put 125 to 300 tractor-trailer
s a day on local roads, including U.S. 17 in Chesapeake.
But it
also could bring big financial rewards.
American Ref-Fuel has offered to pay the host city from $1 to $1.25 per
ton of trash transferred. That would amount to more than $1 million in
annual revenue for a city that accepts the plan. In Portsmouth’s case, the
proposal also could mean putting publicly owned property back on the tax
rolls.
“The real opportunity here for Portsmouth is: Could Portsmouth realize
a considerable revenue for a long period of time that would help
neighborhoods?” City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. said. “That would be the
only reason to consider it. Does it help the community build itself? If it
passes the test, this might be an opportunity. But I want to get there
through rigorous analysis.”
For SPSA, which handles most trash for Virginia Beach, Norfolk,
Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Franklin, Isle of Wight County and
Southampton County, joining American Ref-Fuel would provide additional
revenue and would keep trash disposal rates down for its member
communities, executive director John Hadfield said.
American Ref-Fuel would pay SPSA to deposit some of the New York trash
at SPSA’s local facilities before transporting the rest to North Carolina.
The partnership could hold down costs that SPSA charges localities by
more than $7 million in 2007, according to agency estimates.
“We wanted to get something from this,” said Louis Jordan, SPSA’s
deputy director. “In all probability, New York’s trash is coming through
here anyway. So why not lend our expertise and help our localities?”
SPSA’s board of directors was supposed to vote on the issue last week.
But after meeting behind closed doors for more than two hours, it reached
no conclusion.
A special board meeting has been called for this coming Monday, as
American Ref-Fuel must deliver its proposal for handling New York City’s
garbage by March 11, the bidding deadline.
On Monday, SPSA defended its decision to keep nearly a year’s worth of
preliminary discussions about a prospective deal private. Officials
initially declined to comment on emerging details of the deal, but after
learning that The Virginian-Pilot had obtained a memo outlining the months
of negotiations, SPSA decided to talk publicly.
The issue also was discussed at a Portsmouth City Council meeting late
Monday night. The council will decide by March 11 whether to endorse the
proposal .
The trash-port idea was sparked by a 490-acre landfill proposed by
Black Bear LLC on land north of South Mills, N.C. The landfill’s plans
have not been through a review with the North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources, but the landfill – which would accept
10,000 tons of trash a day – could open as early as October.
Chesapeake initially turned down the idea of a trash transfer station,
Mayor Dalton S. Edge said Monday, but officials there have decided to
reconsider. SPSA officials also talked to Norfolk, which rejected the idea
of being host to a garbage project, Hadfield said.
Private negotiations with Portsmouth have been under way for several
weeks.
Timothy Fagan, the manager of business development at American
Ref-Fuel, said his company was looking to operate a marine terminal six
days a week, nearly 20 hours a day, stopping truck traffic only at peak
commuter hours.
The trash – residential garbage from Manhattan and its surrounding
boroughs – would be shipped in sealed containers and then mounted on
tractor-trailers, similar to those used to transport many other goods at
the region’s other shipping ports, he said. At Portsmouth’s City Council
meeting Monday night, Hadfield showed pictures of operations elsewhere
that depict a clean, orderly trucking operation much like that at the
Portsmouth Marine Terminal.
SPSA and Portsmouth officials plan to visit a New Jersey trash transfer
site on Wednesday, Oliver said.
Still, the idea of transferring that much trash through Portsmouth made
some City Council members uneasy .
“I’m just skeptical,” C ouncilman Ray A. Smith Sr. said. “We’ve got
enough problems without handling New York’s trash. I want us to know what
we’re getting into. Because the first time there’s an accident, then it’s
going to be 'Katie, bar the door.’”
Councilwoman Marlene Randall said she worried that truck traffic
generated by the new port would damage roads and hurt surrounding
neighborhoods.
City Chief of Staff John B. Maher said the SPSA and American Ref-Fuel
proposal at least would allow the city to restrict the hours of operation
and the routes the trucks would take. If American Ref-Fuel decided to send
trash overland or through normal shipping channels, the city wouldn’t have
control over anything – and it wouldn’t get the per-ton fee, he pointed
out.
A new shipping terminal also would require state environmental permits,
and SPSA, as part of the agreement, would inspect its operations,
officials said. If an existing terminal were used or the trash was trucked
all the way from New York, environmental scrutiny likely would not be
required.
Chesapeake, meanwhile, also finds itself between a rock and a hard
place over the proposal.
If Portsmouth gets the transfer station, its neighbor to the south will
bear most of the burden that hundreds of tractor-trailer s will put on
roads and bridges between the transfer station and landfill. And
Chesapeake wouldn’t get a dime under that scenario.
“All in all, we would rather not have the trash,” Edge said. “But as I
have said, we have very little control of interstate commerce.” As long as
the trucks are not doing anything illegal, “there is not much you can do,”
he said.
Reach Meghan Hoyer at 446-2293 or meghan.hoyer@pilotonline.com.
nReach Scott Harper at 446-2340 or scott.harper@pilotonline.com.
Reach Janette Rodrigues at 222-5208 or janette.rodrigues@pilot
online.com.