Wednesday, November 8, 2000
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Wednesday, November 8, 2000 |
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Consultants to look for place to stash Fayette's garbage Help with abandoned landfill also expected
By DAVE
HAMRICK
Fayette County will spend $41,800 to get an expert's help with the ongoing problems of how to protect groundwater during the shutdown of an old landfill and what to do about increasing piles of garbage in the future. According to county public works director Lee Hearn, consulting firm HDR/W. L. Jorden's task will be three-fold: "They'll look at five, ten, 20 years down the road and help us make sure solid waste is well-handled," he said. "Second, they'll study the transfer station in regard to improvements to traffic flow... to improve operational efficiency. And they'll be looking at our testing program," he added. Like most landfills its age, the county's old landfill on First Manassas Mile Road was built before modern standards were in place, and the result is that chemicals are leaking into the environment, according to experts. The county is working on a long-term program to both monitor the seepage and put a stop to it. Currently, 30 monitoring wells keep an eye on the plume of leaking substances, said Hearn, each one costing $100,000 to $150,000 to maintain over its 30-year life. It's hoped that Jorden will be able to reduce that number by half without "shortchanging the quality of the results that we get," he said. With the landfill no longer in operation, the county currently accepts waste from garbage haulers at a transfer station nearby, and pays Allied waste management company to haul the refuse to a working landfill in another county. Hearn said Jorden will recommend long-term solutions for handling the county's waste. The contract with Allied expires in 2002, he added. County commissioners unanimously approved Jorden's bid for the project, which was $8,200 lower than the next lowest bid.
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