Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
The Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority’s 2023 Annual report, released in January, estimated that the current county landfill has 2.7 years of useful life left in it. Now the Solid Waste Authority is planning for the future of solid waste disposal in the county after the landfill closes. They have been negotiating a purchase deal with the current owner of the land. The county has been leasing the landfill property.
Earlier options considered for after the landfill is closed included placing a transfer station at the site for collection, then haul the solid waste to landfills in other counties. The tire and white goods recycling at the closed landfill site would continue in operation.
One problem the SWA has been wrestling with, concerning the potential purchase of the landfill property, has been determining the exact boundaries for the property. The owner of the property has several areas on the currently leased property which she does not want to include in any sale, including a road used for her farming operation.
The county commission had a survey of the property completed, but when authority member and county commissioner Jamie Walker recently walked the property with Landfill Manager Chris McComb, they were unable to find some of the survey stakes and could not find one of the corners as was indicated on the copy of the plat they had.
Concerned about this, Walker explained at the February 28 SWA meeting that he suspects the plat might not include the required 100-foot setback from the property line to the landfill’s disposal cells. He said he contacted the surveyor about his concerns and was told it would be checked into. Walker said he has not heard back from the surveyor.
Jacob Meck brought a different plat from the surveyor to the meeting. That one shows slightly different set-backs and corners. Walker said the new plat might reflect corrections made after his conversation with the surveyor. If that is so, it appears to resolve his concerns. However, Walker still wants to make sure it is the corrected and final plat, and that it includes all the required 100-foot set-backs.
SWA Chairman Ed Riley said he still has concerns about who will be responsible for maintaining the fences along the entrance road after the purchase.
Member David McLaughlin wanted to know if the county commission purchases the landfill, who will own it – the commission or the Solid Waste Authority?
It was pointed out that establishing a transfer station will be expensive, with a start-up cost of $1.6 million, building a shop will cost $300,000 and adding a new fence will cost $36,000. Additionally, there will be annual expenses estimated at about $73,000.
Mary Clendenen said the county commission needs to understand that the funding sources the authority has been relying on will not cover these one-time and on-going annual operation costs unless there is a long-term financial support commitment by the commission. She pointed out that the commission does have the ultimate responsibility to ensure that the county has reliable solid waste disposal.
These issues will be on the agenda for discussion at the commission’s March 5 morning meeting.
Also at the meeting, the state requirement that people disposing of demolition materials at the landfill must provide a negative asbestos inspection was discussed. Questions were raised about whether that only applies to industrial demolitions, or also to residents who are doing remodeling at their homes. Notices about the asbestos inspection requirements have been sent out to industrial demolition companies. It was decided that publishing public notices about the asbestos inspection requirements wasn’t necessary since there are already signs forbidding disposal of hazardous materials at the landfill.
Regarding the financial report, Clendenen said they lost $18,639 in January, but that was an operational loss, not due to any unusual expenses.
The members also approved a bid by Farley Drilling, Inc. of Pineville, to drill a water monitoring well which meets all state requirements at a cost of $1,450.
