| Talking trash in Louisa County
Virginia Business
June 2004
Virginia’s
network of commercial landfills may soon be expanded.
Tennessee-based Santek Environmental, which now manages
eight landfills in four states, is proposing to take
over the public landfill in Louisa County.
The county spends $600,000 a year running its 100-acre
landfill and is facing $5 million in costs to clean
up groundwater contamination and make other improvements.
Without repairs the landfill will have to close in 2012,
so county leaders are thinking about turning the site
into a regional landfill for 30 Virginia localities
and charging a fee.
The proposed deal with Santek would let it run the site
and expand the capacity from 100 tons per day to 500
tons. The county would still own the site and none of
the trash would come from out of state.
At a public hearing in late April, though, residents
railed against becoming “one of Virginia’s
dumpsters” and for now county leaders are still
studying their options. Some residents are pushing to
keep the landfill for Louisa residents only and supported
higher county taxes and fees to pay for the improvements
and the higher operating costs.
Virginia is currently the nation’s third leading
importer of trash, behind Pennsylvania and Michigan.
In 2002, according to the Virginia Depart-ment of Environ-mental
Quality, the state received nearly 23 million tons of
trash, with 17 million tons originating inside the state
and 6 million tons from out of state. The latter represents
a 12.5 percent increase in out-of-state imports over
2001.
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