This was posted by Barky Von Schnauzer farther down under another topic. But it is important. We do not have the money to pay for this landfill to continue. And yet it continues. We have about 20 Tons of trash a day in page County.
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On the subject of the landfill it does seem that we are not breaking even, with large equipment purchases (Compactor, etc.) and only receiving 100 tons of waste per day and all the ongoing monitoring costs, both gas and ground water monitoring. Keep in mind it takes approximately 200-250 tons of trash per day, paying tons to break even, with a Sub-Title D Landfill. In addition, we have the on-going post closure costs of the Stanley Landfill, this landfill (and many like it) called HB 1205, as in House Bill 1205 is an unlined facility. So chances are there will be additional costs associated with remediation, check out the Ivy landfill in Albermarle County, they are curently in GPS (Ground Water Protection Standards), this is a remeadiation process to abate and take care of any ground water problems the landfill is/or has caused. We have 30 years of post closure care at Stanley. The county already has a passive system for burning off gas the old candle sticks as they have been called, as well as they manage an active gas extraction system which pulls methane gas from the Stanley Landfill, this is the active system. I beleive the county is only in about the 5th or 6th year in post closure care at Stanley. And again this is an unlined facility, Battle Creek is a lined facility meaning a compsoite liner is used to protect the ground, however EPA can not without a doubt say that even a lined landfill will not leak at some point in the future. The solid waste management regs are constantly being amended and changed and their has been discussion to make monitoring 50 years instead of 30 years. Where I am going with this is that costs are going to be ongoing for a long time with both landfills. To close Battle Creek, would mean the start of 30 years of ongoing post closure care while we would still have 24 to 25 years of post closure care at Stanley, and we would still have to construct a Transfer station, which has ongoing costs as well. Hind sight being 20/20 as they say, we should have closed the landfill that is Stanley back in 1994 when post closure requirements were only 10 years in length and not 30, we could have constructed a transfer station, handled only the waste generated in Page County, know that all the waste prior to 1994 would have been only Page Conty's trash being deposited at the Stanley landfill. Ths is what Warren County did, they closed their landfill prior to 1994 constructed a transfer station, and only had to monitor their facility (Landfill) for 10 years. And even with a transfer station, in addition to operational costs their would be transportation costs to Culpeper and that is even if they were allowed by their permit to accept waste from Page County. What is funny to me is their is a transfer station (Warren County's in Bentonville) less than 20 miles from Battle Creek taking their waste almost three hours to a landfill in Richmond. We should be opening up discussions again with Warren County to get their waste (approximately 100-110 tons per day) so we could at least maybe break even. They have quality municipal waste such as Page, and it seems we could offset their transportation cost (traveling 3 hours) to about 30 minutes and offer Warren County a tipping fee palitable to them and Page as well. Again we are only receiving about 100 or so tons now while I believe all three towns are dumping for free in this 100 tons. What is even more interesting, is to follow the Waste Management truck(s) outside of the town limits and watch them pick up green and blue containers and put them in the same truck as the "free" town waste, who is paying for that trash, our tax $$$. What is even more interesting is the businesses who have green/blue trash containers whos trash also goes into the waste management truck, so if we (County tax payers) are really paying for the towns residents to dump for free while are their residents outside of the town as well as businesses dumping in the "free" truck. If this is the case why have conveience sites, allow the WM truck to pick up trash at every household in Page County, on our tax paying tab. Just food for thought to go along with the Crooked County Book and Marvin Bush
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8 comments:
I think the Supervisors have breathed a sigh of relief and turned their attention away from this. It may not be the problem it once was, but it is still not a problem solved.
Understandable that more trash is needed to offset expenses, but just yesterday on the speak-out show, one of the supervisors made the statement that 340 is awful for commuters going to work in northern VA. So can the road structure from Warren County or Bentonville support more truck traffic. 340 coming south from Bentonville into Luray is even worse that the road structure from Front Royal into Bentonville.
No, I agree it can't support truck traffic. But that only suggests that we can't have a landfill here at all. Our trash is not enough to support it, we've learned that we can't deal with truck traffic . . . so why can't we close it up and send our trash out, or make it small enough to just deal with our own trash?
Just in the last few months, our Supervisors approved another $1.2M in long term debt for more work at the landfill. Why? Why does it have to stay open at all?
$1.2M is something like 8% of all our real estate taxes. They add it to long term debt so it doesn't seem like so much.
And then on top of that, they operate the landfill at a cost higher than taking our trash out of town. Why?
It is true that US Hwy 340 between Front Royal and Luray is not the best roadway, especially for large trucks hauling trash. But keep in mind Warren County (Browning Ferris Industries {BFI}/Allied Waste) hauled from Bentonville to Stanley and Battle Creek incident free from 1993/1994 until 2004, paying Page County or the operator for Page County Tellurian/NWS over $1,000,000.00 per year. Not to suggest we bring an operator in again, but to do it ourselves, especially since we (Page County) have already purchased the large landfill handling equipment. Again like my earlier post, Battle Creek should have never been built and Stanley should have been closed down prior to 1994, but the opposite occured. If we shut it down now (Battle Creek) we would have to construct a transfer station and haul it (trash) from Page County on those same roads. So regardless if Battle Creek closed or Warren County hauled their trash here, trucks would be on the road. Going to Culpeper or Richmond would be extensive travel, wear and tear and would probably require moving over a mountain carrying 80,000 lbs. I don't advocate expanding, etc. but look at our neighbors and their costs, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Frederick. In the age of DEQ and expanded regulations, it costs money to operate a landfill, transfer station, and also haul trash out of the area. Their will be more of the 1.2 million in debts for the landfill(s) in the future. We possiblly could consider curbside recycling such as what other towns are doing to help offset some of the costs. I beleive Timberville, Elkton, Dayton, Broadway, and Bridgewater in Rockngham County, as well as New Market and Woodstock in Shenandoah County along with Front Royal in Warren County have curbside recycling. However, there are costs associated with reccyling as well. But recycling is the responsible thing to do, it may curb some households in both Luray and Stanley having more than one roll-out container, filled with card board and other recycled material. Maybe folks would be more responsible if they had a container to put only recycled material in, especially since we (Page County)are considering a new recycling business. Many communities incorporate a strategy for environmental sustainability which includes in this order: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Waste-to-Energy, and then Landfill. This method is so effective in some communities that very little waste is landfilled, such as Arlington, and Alexandria. Again these are much larger communities which are Environmental leaders throughout the country, and have much larger budgets and tax bases for the effort as well as education but when New Market and Elkton are starting to do it,it makes you think about Page.
Holy enormous post batman.
Paragraphs would make that readable
It makes perfect sense to me, very thought provoking, thanks for the insight Barky. It seems as though you have an interesting twist to your information. Do not let anon's post get you down, anyone that refers to a fictious charcter, does not have much value or info to offer. The towns should consider curb side recycling. Thanks again.
Sorry anon Batman, I should have made my long posts in paragraph form, I do apologize, just got a little worked by the many posts throughout the whole site related to the landfill.
However, I do agree with Page County Watch, the current board has moved passed this issue, and with the hand they were dealt, did do a pretty good job.
Has anyone noticed who dumps their trash at the springfield compactor site? How can we know who dumps trash there with no county stickers? I'm sure we are getting trash from other than Page county residents. Does anyone care that this takes place?
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