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"As long as Allied owns 1,600 acres . . . and has $3 million invested, they will be back," said Bob Armentrout, chairman of the group that calls itself NODUMP -- for Neighbors Organized to Deny Unsavory Multi-state Poison.

The group, which turned out opponents by the hundreds at several meetings, is looking for candidates to run for three supervisor seats in the next election.

"We know we need to have people who will vote against the thing if it comes up after the election," said Vincent Finalli, a co-chairman of the group.

Charlotte supervisors said last week that they had not yet taken a position on the landfill proposal and were only looking into it. They had asked Allied to make presentations about its proposal in each district in the county, but those plans have been scrapped.

On Feb. 1, the supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution asking the county planning commission to drop its consideration of amending the zoning ordinance and comprehensive plan to allow for a sanitary landfill -- changes that would be necessary to establish such an operation.

The board also set up a seven-member environmental committee, with a representative from each district, and assigned the group to study the county's solid-waste-disposal needs and its options.

Opponents planned to go ahead with a previously scheduled meeting later in the week but canceled it because of winter weather. The meeting has been rescheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. in Chase City.

Late last year, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Allied Waste Industries Inc. spent $3 million to purchase 1,600 acres -- mainly in Charlotte County, with small tracts in Mecklenburg and Lunenburg counties -- from the John Hancock insurance company. Allied had said it would establish about a 250-acre sanitary landfill entirely in Charlotte. It is unclear what will happen to the property if a landfill is not built.

The company has said the landfill would serve south central Virginia and possibly North Carolina and Maryland but would not accept hazardous, medical or radioactive waste. The company said the landfill would also generate millions in revenues for Charlotte over its 20-year life and handle county trash at no charge.

But opponents raised concerns about water and air pollution and the odor and fears about taking out-of-state trash.

After the board's vote last week to halt efforts that could have cleared the way for the landfill, Ted Neura, project-development manager for Allied, acknowledged to the approximately 100 people in attendance that he was "probably the only person in this room disappointed."

But Neura said that in the emotion surrounding the issue, the risk to the community was mischaracterized.

"What we are trying to do is manage a problem society has," he said. "We are trying to manage waste."

If the supervisors had moved ahead with the project, several public hearings would have been required before the landfill could open. The landfill would also need permits from the state.

Charlotte's trash currently goes to the South Boston landfill, which is scheduled to close in 2007, and to the landfill in Amelia County, Charlotte County Administrator R.B. Clark said. Charlotte is also considering joining a regional landfill effort being pushed by Mecklenburg County.

Charlotte spends more than $550,000 annually for waste collection and recycling and for fees to dispose of its trash, noted Gary Walker, chairman of the Board of Supervisors.

"We further realize that building a smaller, three-county landfill may cost more to construct and operate than we are able to afford," he said.

Neighboring counties have been cool to the Allied proposal.

In Mecklenburg, where local officials have been pushing for development of a regional landfill, supervisors passed a resolution reaffirming their board's commitment "to public ownership and operation of a sanitary landfill serving the needs of Mecklenburg County citizens, and the needs of those neighboring counties" choosing to participate.

Meanwhile, at the behest of residents who showed up at a meeting, Lunenburg supervisors passed a resolution opposing the Charlotte landfill and voicing concerns about air pollution, harm to the local environment and a decrease in property values.

Chase City's town council entered an agreement with the Charlotte County Development Co., the company Allied set up to own the landfill, in September that called for the Mecklenburg town to close any wells it has within 5 miles of the Charlotte line because of pollution fears.

The agreement called for Chase City to be paid $50,000 for entering the agreement and another $50,000 once the company receives its permit. The town also would be able to dump its residential municipal trash in the landfill for free for 20 years.

But recently, town officials have sought legal advice about the agreement, saying they thought they were accommodating a landfill that was to serve a radius of about 50 miles, not one that would take out-of-state trash.

"Somebody misled somebody," Chase City Mayor A. Duke Reid said. "I don't know who misled who."

Last week's action by the Charlotte supervisors was prompted, at least in part, by a Jan. 25 request by the county planning commission that the supervisors hire a consultant to examine whatever options the county has in handling its trash, as well as the cost and liability associated with the proposed landfill.

Walker said last week that with the decision to stop negotiations with Allied, there is no need to pay for such a study.

"This is due, in part, to the fact that we have a large contingent of voters who have declared that, no matter what this study may find, they would never agree to a landfill, thereby making this a waste of taxpayer money," Walker said, reading from a statement.

Last July, the commission voted for changes to the zoning ordinance that were billed as part of the planning for a proposed public-service authority and regional landfill, one member said. The commission voted at the time to change the zoning ordinance to allow a sanitary landfill as a conditional use. But after the county attorney questioned whether the hearing on the changes had been properly advertised, county leaders decided the vote should be reaffirmed.

Word of Allied's proposal then spread, and opposition grew.

On Jan. 25, the planning commission voted against confirming the zoning change.

"We all thought . . . we were speaking only of our area," commission member Coan Agee said. "Not waste from the Eastern Seaboard."