for
e
for
e
t
good afternoon
everyone go ahead and get in your uh
find a seat let's get situated this is
long
meeting
attention everybody find your
seat
good afternoon
everyone very good good afternoon
everyone I'd like to welcome you to the
Russell County Board of Supervisors on
marcha
2024 at 7 pm in the uh Russell County
govern government conference room I like
to first start off with a k b and R
call Andrew Hensley
here Wallace are we on here yes terod
here David Eaton Rebecca D here Nate
Kaiser here and Steve Brady sir you have
a COR thank you Mr
Lester okay first item on the agenda is
invocation and after that we'll do the
Pledge of Allegiance would stand with me
please Caleb will you do the
honors
let's pray dear heavenly father Lord you
are so great and Lord we're so honored
to be in your presence this evening and
Lord we thank you for all the blessings
you bestow upon us and we thank you most
of all for your son Jesus that died for
us and Lord as we come in to meet about
the business of this County tonight and
go over things Lord help everything that
we do and say be pleasing in your sight
and we thank you and love love you in
Jesus name amen
amen of the United States of America and
to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible liy and
justice for
all I hope everybody's had an
opportunity to take a look at agenda uh
if there anything any additions or
changes that you want need to speak now
Steve yes sir I would like to amend the
agenda to move board discussion after
citizen comment and uh and also have
board questioning before s comment so in
other words have the board be able to
ask questions of the legal counsel and
uh and the uh yeah the way I planned
this out
is they're going to go through their
presentations we'll do legal
environmental and then financial and
then the board will have an opportunity
to ask
questions on those particular items and
once the
board gets through with their question
and we it open it up to the public all
right and and then we can do another
discussion yeah I'll just like to add
another discussion after that in case
there's anything comes up from the
public we want to address so I think
we're pretty flexible here we we can do
whatever so we can have a motion to
accept this
agenda so move second motion to Second
any further discussion if not all in
favor signify by saying I I allose likes
there are none okay gentlemen you're
ready to start Mr
Wester thank you
chairman as everyone is is here in a wi
of course course the landfill has been a
major topic within the county over the
last probably the six last 6 to n months
you know very
intensely first of all we'd like to
explain that our format for the landfill
and what our presentation is tonight we
will be look we will be addressing first
the history of the
landfill what how the project developed
we will also be looking at the legal and
the Environmental
the economic development and the
financial and during the presentation of
course as we give this to the Board of
Supervisors this
presentation at on the followup on the
summary they will be able to ask
questions and then the citizens will
have their opportunity so as we move
through this is's a lot of information
be
patient uh and hold the questions or any
comments until the comment
period again the moery landfill was a
project that was began as the Russell
County reclaim under Virginia energy
they had a permit for to reclaim this
property that you see up up on the slide
in the permit of course they have
partially developed the front portion of
it that you'll be seeing later as for
economic development and for future
econom development and of course they're
currently operating under Virginia
energy permit under the reclaim permit
on on the back portion of the facility
uh the
land as we go through it again I will
start off with the
history the history of the reclaim of
course RCR which is Russell County uh
reclaim proposed an economic development
of the m 3 property for post reclaim use
this was was it first introduced to us
verbally back into the march of April of
22 on the short quick meeting when they
introduced the discussion for a full
range of possibilities from partnering
with Dominion converting processing of
Refuge coal lightweight Aggregates R
Earth minerals wind or solar or
landfill at this point the project was
very conceptual but we had to treat it
as we do as any other economic project
that come to the
county um legal council was recommended
Contracting with environmental
Specialists to conduct PL to file
announces for the site due to the
environmental issues the county receives
many economic development Pro proposals
and we got to treat them all as viable
projects and many that do not
materialize of course the currently the
Ida they're they're currently working in
the pipeline they have two proposed
economic development projects that's
underway right now in the county and the
Board of Supervisors has two on its own
and this is an economic development
project it is classified into an
industrial site a lot of people don't
think of the landfill's economic
development but it is classified as
industrial it is classified as economic
development so it's must be treated as
an economic development project as we
proceeded forward on May the 2nd 22 the
Board of Supervisors even in their
session with legal council request a
close session discussed the proposed
Moss 3 property for lightweight
Aggregates R Earth minerals solar coal
fines impossible it was still so
conceptual at that time that we were
still waiting on the developers to
Define what they were going to do with
the property discussions were extremely
Broad in scope and at one point they it
was pointed concern by the board there
was no matter what project was being
proposed it was going to be on that side
whether it was wind solar or uh
lightweight aggregate but there would
also be environmental issues we know the
site we have been working with them in
the reclaim to redevelop the Ida site
and of course they have perit through
Virginia energy for reclaim and anyone
that knows reclaim it's reclaiming a CO
site uh the board approved the
advertisement for an environmental
specialist to take a look at this it to
assist the board in evaluating this
property with ease engineering and
environmental
concerns as we proceeded through to June
the 6 the Board of Supervisors and also
gave an update on the progress of course
even in June the MOs property was
discussed but still was still conceptual
we were still waiting on the
developers because we had to treat it
since it was introduced to us through
the whole phase as if we were contining
through it either it was going to go
forward or
stop so in on August on June the 6 2022
we did an RFQ which we advertised for
engineering environmental services and
we closed it out on July
on July the 27th we interviewed Thompson
lint and
Batista the County Administrator we did
not award the contract at that time
because we were still requesting more
information from the developer we didn't
want to pay for engineering
cost if that on what they were proposing
we're still into the five Concepts the
win the solar the aggregat r Earth
minerals and the landfill was the last
proposal that was even introduced during
these
discussions as we prog went through to
from July to September we had already
advertised it the Russell County Board
of Supervisors legal legal council
present the environmental Consulting
contract and the BOS approved so we went
from July to September where we're still
waiting on the
developers on December the 1st we also
the other component that we have to
legally look at of all the five
components the only two that pertained
legally or environmentally to the county
was the landfill or the solar so of
course the Board of Supervisors the
solar technical advisory committee which
was made up of board supervisors member
met to develop a county solar ordinance
so we were looking at the landfill and
the
solar at on December the 5th we met with
Virginia energy to develop a solar
committee to develop a a County
ordinance to make sure that we were in
compliance with federal and state law as
we proceeded through December again the
committee kept continue meeting to
develop the ordinance on December the 16
2022 Batista emailed the feasibility
report to us and stated at this point
PST had not identified any issues that
makes the site un permittable for the
last as a use of
landfill that was one component as we
moved into January we were still on the
January Board of January the 3rd
20123 we were still looking for
information still from RCR
uh reclaim as we move through January
the committee on the solar committee
continue to meet to make sure that we
got the ordinance in place on January
the 12th and January the 15th on March
the 6
2023 the board would looked to discuss
and they was still needing more
information from
RCR as we continued back through March
the 16th the solar committee made its
final meeting to finalize the County
ordinance on March on April the 3D in
open Forum the Russ County Board of
Supervisors approved the solar ordinance
so we had looked at the feasibility of
the landfill and now we have got the
component of the ordinance that pertain
to the solar
par the on May the 1st as we continue
through the the county was also
presented with hiring a special counsel
so in April we did the ordinance we
hadn't even heard counsil until May of
2023 even in with Gentry lock so from
that time even though they hired him
they did we did not meet with RCR or
negotiate with RCR because they hadn't
proposed anything they were still into
the five Concepts the wind the solar the
light Aggregates and Etc then on August
the 7
2023 the board held a meeting with Nova
which at the time was still RCR now
we're becoming Noble which presented
what they wanted to do at this site they
met with the Board of Supervisors uh the
county attorney and the Ida and the
Board of Supervisors and they they had
narrowed it down they had taken the wind
component out of it and they planned on
developing a landfill a lightweight
Aggregate and cines a coine plant so
those are the three things that they are
currently uh we had to look at and
that's what they're focusing on from
August the 7th to 2023 to the president
to presid today the Board of Supervisors
has worked with legal council
environmental consult to develop a host
agreement of course we've had multiple
meetings research legal regulations
environmental regulations Economic
Development and the financial components
of this host agreement which is a which
you will hear later of what makes up a
host
agement of course the last component is
March the 8th 2024 we're here right now
today to be able to explain why we had
to from a legal and environmental and a
financial component go through this
process and why we did it's it is the
same and it's got to be treated just as
the way by the code of Virginia as an
economic development project we had many
times that it was stated that I know
there was a lot of Confusion And I know
there was a lot of misinformation that
was put out there but one of the things
and one of the things it was it was
we're trying to move it through without
any knowledge and things are being
hidden from us one thing that you read
if you read 10.1 of the code of Virginia
which is very simple the least thing
that you can hide would be a landfill
due to there's so many public hearings
required on the board supervisor side DQ
side the developer side it would be the
least economic development project that
you could hide legally unless they're
going to breach the
law would be hard to do but we had to
get to the point of we had a firm legal
component we had firm environmental and
firm Financial we are still in the
process of negotiating the last
components of the envir mental and
financial component of it but the Board
of Supervisors to show transparency it
had got to the point that we wanted to
show where we started where we're what
we went through and where we're at today
now there's still other decisions that
want to be made and things that from the
public and and watch y'all statements
and they still want to hear from y'all
that is part of the process so with that
being said I I'd like to turn it back
over to the the legal component which is
Jeff alard he's with Gentry lock he's
our special counsel that we hired back
in May to represent
us thank you Mr chairman good evening
ladies and gentlemen my name is Jeff
Souther I'm with the law firm of gentry
Lock And as U Mr
Lester explained we were hired a special
counsel to represent the county in the
negotiations of a host agreement it's
important as Mr
mentioned the host agreement is governed
is created by and all the all of the
sanitary landfill regulations and laws
are governed by the solid waste act
which is chapter 14 of the code title
101400 and all of the items that follow
there and I want to talk a little bit
about both the host agreement in general
terms and then a little bit more
specifically about where we stand with
ours there we
go first of all a host agreement is a
contract it is a contract act between
the
developer and the county and we'll talk
a little bit more about what that what
that host agreement has to contain but
let's start back with sort of the basics
under the solid waste ACT first of all
there can't be a sanitary landfill for
the disposal of non-hazardous solid
waste without a permit from
DEQ that process can take several
years but no landfill can move forward
whether the county wanted it or didn't
want it or developer wanted it or didn't
want it without DEQ review and
ultimately a
permit it must contain any application
for sanitary landfill has to contain a
certification from the local governing
body that it is
in U Accord with all of the local
ordinance
it also has to have a disclosure
statement about the firm and about the
operation the important thing and we'll
come back and talked about this
certification a little bit more in a
second col the County's Solid Waste
ordinance allows private landfills only
if
they're permitted by the Department of
Environmental Quality so again the the
County ordinance the County Solid Waste
ordinance is basically mirror state law
that says you can't develop one in this
County without a permit from
DEQ so there has to be this is one there
will be many many if this project goes
forward there will be many many
opportunities for public
and public hearing on this one is that
the the developer has to have a public
hearing which they've done at a public
comment period the board has to have a
public hearing and public comment period
which they've started tonight started
tonight um both the local government and
the proposed developer have to certify
that they have followed all all of those
procedures and given the public the
opportunity to comment regarding the
sighting and operation of the
landfill now if the applicant is a local
government in other words if the county
was going to be developing its own
landfill it would have to form a
Citizens Advisory Group if the landfill
is going to be by a private developer it
does require public meetings but it does
not not require a Citizens Advisory
Group but there does require the
certification and does require a public
commentary let's talk a little bit more
about the host agreement
itself one of the things that the law
requires is that any developer of a
private landfill must have a host
agreement with the county in which it's
going to be
located so we keep throwing that term
around let's talk about the host
agreement the host agreement the host
agreement that comes from actually from
state law that says you got to have a
host agreement if you're going to pursue
a uh a private
landfill and the host agreement that Mr
Lester referred to there's been lots and
lots of discussions about and
negotiations about at a minimum has to
include a series of
things has to have Provisions covering
how much
compensation will the county receive
under the host grp and that is under
discussion and negotiation right now
what will the daily travel routes and
traffic volumes be well one of the
unique features of this site is the
developers proposing that the
overwhelming majority of the waste come
by rail not by road and in fact the the
uh host agreement is going to specify a
minimum of waste that has to come by
Rail and that number will probably be
80% or higher would have to come by rail
but those agreement would require
analysis and DQ would require analysis
of travel routes and traffic volumes
there will be a daily disposal limit um
in the host agreement that will say they
they used to go by
U average daily volumes but theq now
insists that they're be a a maximum
daily amount and there will be a maximum
daily amount in the host agreement the
number that was originally set for was
6,000 tons a day um whether that ends up
being the final number it's a little too
early to say be discussion about the
service area in other words where can
the waste come
from it also one of the things that's
particularly important about the host
agreement is that it requires the
developer who's going to going to permit
and operate the landfill to pay for a
full-time employee of the counties to
monitor the development construction and
operation of the landfill
the host agreement has what we have
called excuse me a landfill
liaison the county will hire a landfill
liaison uh that landfill liaison will
work for the county it could either be a
Consulting an engineer consultant or it
could be a full-time employee who's and
they would report to uh the County
Administrator and the board and the
responsibility of that landfill aison
would be to over see and coordinate
comments on draft permits to oversee and
ensure compliance on the construction of
the landfill and to oversee and ensure
compliance of the operation of the
landfill and the host agreement that we
have U negotiated now requires the
county to I'm sorry requires the
developer to pay the county for that
landfill the Aon person purpose let me
back up a second and um uh and talk
about uh Mr Lester mentioned that the
county had retained legal counsel me and
pesta engineering and Dave Paylor to to
to advise the county on this on this
particular project uh one of the other
things that the county has insisted on
is that the developer reimburse the
county for those expenses if this
project goes forward so that would be in
the host of agreement as well the host
agreement also provides that there has
to be splits of air and water samples uh
and the host agreement that uh that we
are negotiating now includes that kind
of language uh it says that uh the
landfill the aison would be responsible
for making sure that uh air and water
samples were split uh the county could
determine its old lab that they would
want the work done and all of those s
results would be public
information so public could have an
opportunity to see all of those there's
also a
um
um let me talk briefly about a few more
conditions that are in the uh
the draft of the host agreement that
they're working on now
um Dave Paylor is going to talk a little
bit about some of the preconditions
there is a series of environmental
preconditions that will have to be
satisfied uh before the landfill is
developed uh there's a series of
preconditions that that the developer
has to meet in their application process
with
DEQ and Dave's going to talk a little
bit about that
in addition there is uh monitoring and
inspection rights by the county the
county would have the U ability to go in
and inspect and take samples at any time
they wanted there are Financial
Assurance uh Provisions in there um
there are other insurance Provisions
commercial liability workers
compensation environmental Insurance
umbrella insurance Insurance all of
which the county has insisted that the
developer
provide I spoke briefly about the the uh
landfill the aison that is in the draft
um there is also when we talk about the
host fee there will also be a minimum
host fee in the
agreement now the minimum host fee still
being negotiated but regardless usually
poost fees are based on the amount of
tonage that a landfill would receive so
if the landfill receives a lot of
tonnage the county gets more money but
regardless of how much tonnage it gets
there would be a
minimum u a minimum post fee that the
county would
receive one of the other things that's
required is that there be a guarantee of
disposal capacity capacity for the
County's Solid Waste going forward now
Mr rer didn't go into a lot of detail
about this site but I think everybody's
pretty familiar with this is a 1250 Acre
Site The Proposal is that 30 Acres of it
be permitted for a
landf that is my math is right 2.4% of
the land of that site would be permitted
as a
landfill interesting it's actually
smaller than the County's current
landfill that uh that has been closed
for some years it has a design capacity
that 30 Acres of 50
years so one of the assurances that the
developer has to provide to the county
and has to provide to the EQ is that
they would be able to
handle the disposal needs of the county
for the life of the landfill so this
will take take care of the disposal
needs of the county for 50 years it also
gives the county a uh A reduced rate in
terms of what they would pay in other
words they would pay less than the
tapping fee and I believe Mr Lester is
going to talk about what that means
economically for the county but there is
a disposal guaranteed as part disposal
guar capacity guarantee as part of this
u in addition there is indemnification
language
uh that if the county should ever get to
the developer has to step in and
indemnify the county and there's also a
limitation on transfer of
ownership that way the developers can't
just flip it to anybody they want to
that the county would have to give
permission before they could sell the
landfill to somebody else so this host
agreement is very complex it's very
detailed um there's a lot lot of
Provisions in there about the
operations and the financial strength
and the insurance and the permitting and
so forth um and and then ultimately the
the host fee that would be paid to the
county so it's still um evolving right
now I think as you know
um we're still having some discussions
with with Nova
corporation uh still going through some
drafts
um as you can imagine there's a lot of
moving parts to this uh
but I'll let Mr ler give his version of
where it is but but we've made a lot of
progress in the last few months of
trying to get some of these issues
resolved now one of the other things
that U that has to happen before this
moves forward is certification that I
mentioned earlier there has to be a
certification from the local government
that that the uh facility is or will be
in compliance with all local ordinances
and is consistent with the
local the counties region and Regional
Solid Waste Management plans currently
the County Solid Waste ordinance which
is acts as the County Solid Waste plan
does not identify this specific site but
it does identify the site as Industrial
similarly the comprehensive plan does
not identify this as a landfill but
identifies it as industrial
property so the county will probably
have
to uh amend their local Solid Waste
ordin ordinance to specifically include
this
site
excuse
um landfill host agreement as we
mentioned earlier they have to file a
disclosure statement we will know who
the owners are we will know that they
have the insurance we will know that
they have the financial wherewithal we
will know that they have an operations
plan and we will know that they have to
go through the permitting
process
after after there's a comprehensive
investigation and Analysis by DEQ and is
the code refers to it as potential human
health environmental Transportation
infrastructure Transportation safety
impacts and needs and evaluation of the
comments by the local government so one
of the things that would happen if this
project goes forward is a comprehensive
reviews offer virtues to part A and Part
B process where DQ would look at all of
these factors in addition to what the
county has looked at in terms of
negotiating the host agreement DQ is
going to look at all of them again in
addition to obviously the geotechnical
and operational and other concerns and
they would evaluate the comments and the
county will have the comment opportunity
and the public will have the opportunity
to comment on a draft permit as this
process would move forward uh one of the
things that that uh uh Mr Lester has
insisted on in all of the negotiations
is we want the opportunity to see
everything that's happening you know
when when when the county first hired uh
pest engineering and gentry lock we were
told there's going to be three governing
rules we want to protect the government
we want to protect the county
environmentally we want to protect the
county legally and we want to protect
the county financially and that's been
sort of the the the governing rules that
that we've operated by and one of of the
things we've always insisted upon is
that the developer if this goes for is
completely transparent and turns over
all documentation all studies all
analysis all permit applications to give
the public and the county the
opportunity to comment
on
[Music]
um I think we just talked about all of
these public interest served
uh it's Lo it's incre it's consistent
with locally imposed or State Daily
disposal limits that there sufficient
infrastructure in this case this is
going to be primarily a rail site that
the rail infrastructure exists to
services facility uh that it protects
present future human health and safety
and the environment that is deq's
primary focus as they go through this
and it's consistent with
local uh uh Solid Waste
plans okay let's go back and talk a
little bit more about the public hearing
part of this as I said there's already
been one public hearing we're now on our
second public hearing there will be a
handful more public hearings as this
process moves forward if this process
moves forward there'll be many more um
DQ will do as I mentioned the part A and
Part B process where they will include
things like the recordkeeping the
testing the reporting
requirements uh they have to ensure that
um uh the local government is kept
informed although we have in our draft
agreement uh language in there that
requires regular meetings uh and submitt
of all operating information to the
county um there's also protocols for
Waste screening in the host agreement to
make sure that only nonhazardous
household waste is disposed of
um so the DQ process is quite complex
and I'm sure Dave can talk a little bit
more about that uh if we get to that
point okay so one of the things that
they will look at is um as the landfill
is operating if
there's material violation or substan
violations they could shut down the site
so DEQ has enforcement power the good
thing is the county has a landfill the
Aon who would be inspecting the
operation of the facility uh inspecting
construction of the facility and if
there was anything that was inconsistent
with the host agreement or inconsistent
with Pro permitting process could notify
DEQ and they could order a shutdown
let's talk I think sort of final
conclusions about the host agreement the
host agreements decid to be a protection
agreement this is signed so that the
county can put language in there that's
going to protect the County's interests
from an environmental standpoint from a
financial standpoint from a legal
standpoint from operational standpoint
that the County's interests are
protected you got no host agreement
you've got no
protection uh bosty property is
classified as
industrial as I mentioned it's a 1250
Acre Site The Proposal is for 30 Acres
of that to be used as a landfill there
is no
County uh zoning ordinance but it is
consistent with the comprehensive plan
and generally consistent with the solid
waste ordinance
so I'll be glad to answer any questions
I think we do questions at the end
okay good evening members of the board
my name is David Paylor I'm um
associated with pestan Associates um and
um see which way I
go okay there we go go okay so I'm with
pestan Associates um pesta is uh
primarily uh headquartered in West
Virginia and um has done as you might
imagine over the last 25 plus years uh
quite a bit of work with uh uh with coal
facilities uh both uh in West Virginia
uh and in
Marland and um you retained us to um
help identify some of the questions that
you had about def identifying health and
safety issues um is this site even Fe
feasible for a landfill are there any
unique site features uh what
environmental concerns need to be
addressed and you said that you want us
to help uh with the meeting or exceeding
of state regulations if those other
things looked okay now first thing that
I'll mention is that um
the uh Nova uh their consultant did a
fatal flaw
analysis uh to identify if there were
any fatal flaws for this site they
identified three things that I'll
mention right now the the um stability
of the slopes that would be the side of
the um uh of the landfill um weather or
not there his is underground mining and
uh geological the existence of maybe of
geological faults or any seismic
activity in the area none of those
things have been evaluated yet those are
things that have been identified that
Nova still realizes um that they need to
evaluate and should this move forward
that is H one of the things that they
would do when we did our site of visit
visit you know we just identified that
it's a b-shaped depression there's a lot
of existing coal refu and there are
several adjacent uh dams that are um of
issue so um in our letter of report we
did um say that there are no issues
identified that make the site unper
permittable that doesn't mean that we
know everything yet I mentioned the um
the potential for the the the Fatal
flaws and those still have to be looked
at um and clearly um a detailed
evaluation um and proper technical
design would be needed um to address
some of these issues so while we say the
site is uh uh appears to be permittable
we also uh recognize that there are some
specific um environmental and design
issues that need to be addressed uh Jeff
spent a lot of time talking about the ly
on that sort of my number one uh issue
was from the outset um as some of you
may know I spent uh actually my entire
career with uh de you I won't tell you
how long that was cuz that would U that
would be um embarrassing but um uh but
in any case from about 1990 early 90s um
on I did have some Association in my job
uh with landfills and I will say that
maybe it was around that time that we as
a state started um moving from um every
county has its own um local uh landfill
um to larger land landfills and that was
by and large because um our landfills
needed to have better design so as a
result as a state now we have fewer
larger
landfills that have gone through a
fairly specific design uh process um and
I guess the the importance of the
landfill e on to me is in the last 30
years I'm going to say whenever we have
had um whenever the state has had a
problem
with the
landfill it by and large has not been
design it has been operations and one of
deq's limitations is they can get out
there a couple times a year um and um
the challenge for landfill owners is
that they U need to make sure that they
are hiring knowledgeable and and
professional folks and that sort of so
so when we've had issues it's been uh
because of operations and not because of
design in recent memory and uh landfill
zones uh can help to identify those
operation issues early enough so that
they don't become a problem so other
issues um uh in the design uh of a
landfill um uh you need to have a leate
collection system with gravity flow to
outside the
landfill um there will then be some lee8
that needs to be handled um a couple of
options one of them is um uh is to put
it on train and uh truck it out train it
out the other the other option is to uh
uh have a wastewater treatment system
that then would discharge presumably to
dumps Creek uh that would require a
permit from uh DEQ that would require
that any leate leaving the treatment uh
system uh would meet water quality
standards um there is in that um area
right now a lot of ponded water that's
got be removed and that has to be
removed uh safely and in such a way that
it doesn't that it meets water quality
standards as
well there are a lot of Co Fs in the
area um that don't represent a solid
foundation for the landfill right now uh
those are going to have to be removed so
that the foundation of the landfill is
um is uh solid uh there's some Co coal
Refuge that Refuge that might stay go
that's got to be um
evaluated um but primarily you need a
detailed stability analysis of the
natural soils uh any coal course coal
Refuge that's there there there are a
couple of dams uh are they stable um
there needs to be a liner system that
will uh protect um uh that will protect
groundwater and um then landfill waste
that goes into it also has to have a
certain stability to it to uh uh to
maintain that as well this this landfill
because it's got a lot of uh vertical
height to it it's going to have some
weight to it and going to have to have a
whole lot of stability uh so that these
soils don't uh compress and put a strain
on the uh liner itself I mentioned the
dams um those actually will have to go
through a permitting uh evaluation by
the Mind safety and health
administration that's uh that's a
federal agency to assure uh assure that
those um uh that those dams uh have
sufficient stability and maintenance in
place to to protect that I mentioned
earlier that um you need to uh assure
that there aren't um um M shafts
underneath you got to look at um where
are if there are M shafts where are they
horizontally where are they vertically
um my M shaft might be six inches deep
or it might be uh six feet deep you need
to know that uh what's the angle of draw
if there are any how far out are they so
that you can evaluate the stability and
whether or not there's any risk from
potential underground shafts where uh
the current belief is that there aren't
any but that hasn't been validated
yet if there are some then then design
and implementation would have to uh um
would have to show that they can be
stabilized there are some techniques for
stabilizing um certain M shafts
especially if they're if they're uh not
um if if they're six inches instead of
six feet that makes it a little easier
to stabilize with full roof grouting and
that sort of thing I mentioned uh slope
stability uh one of the issues in this
um in this site is the slopes are too
vertical right now um uh the sub there's
going to have to be a prepared subgrade
it's going to it's going to have to be
dug out and and made wider because um if
if they're too if it's too vertical um
the it it won't hold the waste correctly
we need to evaluate if any coal refu
stays in the area what's its stability
um Jeff mentioned the liner system the
liner system's got to be strong enough
to uh handle all of that weight and it's
also got to have some design in it that
uh uh that accommodates maybe any
compression the soils that might happen
from from the weight uh natural ground
slopes again are what what I uh
mentioned um are critical um you you
can't have steep slopes and hold the
liner the liner uh has to have uh uh
some some uh broad angles for the for it
to stay in place um waste placement uh
is going to be critical to maintain the
uh the stability and then there's going
to have to be a lot of analysis of uh
the strength parameters laboratory
analysis to assure that all these things
are met adequately they're going to have
to develop a dewatering plan I mentioned
that earlier that there's a pond there
that water's got to come out it's got to
come out and be discharged in a way that
protects uh stream water uh bearing
capacity we've talked about already
leech a storage um one of the things
that I um think is important even if you
have have a wastewater treatment system
there for leech a I believe some storage
is also um important because if
something goes wrong you need time to um
to rectify what's going on with the
wastewater treatment system without
having untreated uh waste uh be
discharged into dumps Creek so Lee a
storage is a thing that we're
recommending um liner material able to
deal with the stress and strain of Mind
subsidence I talked about and um meeting
or exceeding um
uh uh the eq's water quality regulations
so uh again um we haven't identified any
fatal flaws uh but as you can see from
what I said uh there's a lot of
technical work uh to still be done to
evaluate it um you know it's it's a 30
acre uh site um and um no fatal flaws
but what in summary what I mentioned was
got to look to see if there are any
underground mines uh remove un stable
materials like some of the kons make
sure there's a solid base um the slopes
have to be leveled out so that they're
more natural you need a liner that will
manage the weight and potential for
subsidence uh you need a lee8 treatment
system um I mentioned the L Leone which
is I think as important as anything and
um and you know those are things that
are going to have to be addressed um and
and very possibly uh very likely can be
positively addressed the other thing I
would say is if from Eon economic uh
perspective um this may be one of the
few uh economic projects that this
particular piece of land uh could be
used for um so um a lot of work to do
but uh certainly possible to move
forward clarify something I didn't to
get
ear
who's s
spoken I can I will gladly speak loud I
want to write that down and take it home
from my wife that somebody thought I was
softspoken I didn't want to get into
this before Dave had a chance to do his
presentation but the host agreement does
include um language in there to make
sure that that they that would require
the developer to do slope analysis
traffic studies mind subsid liner design
groundwater monitoring system so all of
those Provisions that Dave went over are
specifically enumerated in the host
agreement so that we know that that will
at least get looked at in the permitting
process
right that that's right and to I just
would add that the importance of having
that in the host agreement from my
perspective is that then becomes a
contract between the county and um and
the board the county and the
owner thank you Jeff thank you
David as just before we continue on and
I'll elaborate a little bit more one of
the biggest things that the general
public was asking for on for the the
patista report that was the Big Talk of
the Town that petista report and those
recommendations from a legal
perspective from the feasibility study
those St those recommendations have
become part of the contract so it
transitioned from a feasibility study so
we couldn't release it because those
terms conditions is in the original
contract that we're still negotiating by
law so that was one of the reasons that
that patista report everybody wanted
so they had so much information and it
did it had information that we needed to
work with develop and and go and work
with the contractor to make sure that
the county was protected from an
environmental perspective because that's
what the feasibility said and it's what
it's called it's called a side
assessment it and then we're looking at
the Fatal flaws Le Etc everything that
you heard from him plus in addition to
what DEQ regulations we're looking at
what we call in the part A and Part B
phases so this is has developed into one
comprehensive host plan which is again
to protect the county now as I I move
through is again the last component of
it was and of this of this project we
have looked at the legal component the
environmental component and of course
the last component that we addressed and
still
addressing is the economic and financial
component of course
the this project as I mentioned before
had they had brought in five different
concept so it has multiple economic
development project opportunities of
course the landfill is one but also the
lightweight aggregate is another and so
is the finds this only generates
lightweight aggregate at the Mount of
tonage that you're going to see later in
this presentation is contractually
they're working with
uh contractors like with V Dot these are
Aggregates can be mixed with aspal these
are Aggregates and fines that can go
into concrete and concrete plants so
this is this is a multiple site to do
multiple things now of course y'all have
all seen when it first began they
everyone thought is what was going on to
our New Economic Development site of the
Ida what we call the Golden Ponds that
was developed to where we could put a
business on it and you'll see that later
too um of course this is an industrial
site as mentioned before it's in the
comp plan it's in the planning district
plan and it is it's listed that way
because at one since
1958 uh of course it was one of the
biggest processing plants in the US they
used to run 30,000 tons of coal daily
out of that prep
plant next is of course it's it's
so uh economic because it is into a rail
site it does create jobs it also gives
us opportunities for that area of the B
County to be able to have water and
sewer infrastructure and fiber as as I
know that as had been proposed before I
know that it had been mentioned that
they was looking at a data center on
what we call the Golden Ponds so this is
a part of that in development and that's
proceeding forward
also of course this is what we call the
Golden Ponds this is the proposed
landfill of the Ida that was converted
into a developer site and pad for
Industrial Development
now to get into the financial
perspectives we had to look at it how
what kind of what kind of advantages
Financial advantages could this have
that we were looking at from the host
agreement and what does it generate for
us is it worth the effort in in
developing a a actual host agreement and
working with them to be able to develop
this so first thing we had to look at of
course what the county is looking at for
a financial perspective over the next
one two
three three years excuse
me of course everyone knows as of
yesterday the minimum wage increase up
to $ 1350 to $15 an hour by
2026 of course we've had Regional Jail
increases because of of the labor and
the number of inmat that we've gone in
that look we're looking at an increase
of
$225,000 and as everyone have mentioned
and seen in the previous meetings from
our foster care which we have been
working on Foster Care Homes and being
able to get through our foster care and
our children we're looking at a
$375,000 increase over the next couple
of years of course another big one was
the salary increases that it came down
from the state to 3% and 25 3 8 our
share is
$350,000 next is the 2425 operation just
inflationary cost which is actually the
lowest cost here is about 145,000 after
the next budget and the next big one is
the disposal fee that this deals with
and I'll be going through the cost and
cost savings through the host agreement
and transfer station which is
contractual we're looking at a
$520,000 increase over the next three
years just this year alone right now
today which we ran the numbers our
disposal fee has increased by
$465,000 just since July so costs are
going up um next of course we were
looking at the regional Waste Authority
which is a partner of ours that we run
through they are running a deficit too
actually they're projecting a $300,000
deficit which is split between Three
Counties our share is another
$100,000 this is all contractual so from
what is mandatory through what's
contractual you're looking at $1.3
million that we're looking that that is
contractual or mandatory that we will
have to pay next of course is last year
dear with the casino money we contribute
a 40 to 50% increase to the fire and
Rescue we're going to have to look at
that that was
$245,000 school resource officers we
still lack we need one in Lebanon and
Castlewood at the board's discretion
that is optional too that's
$177,000 of course even when the state
raises our teacher salary to three and
the three and and the three and8
3.8% that still puts ours at when they
raise them Statewide we're still not
making as much as the ones throughout
Northern East Virginia we have 133
counties that is listed municipalities
and towns we're ranked
129 out of
133 so again this year we're also going
through and we contracted out and we
just got through with the flowers we're
getting ready to go into the General
reassessment on properties as everybody
knows
as if anybody's been watching tazel
County and Smith County looking at 20 30
40% increase in land values so these are
real things that we are looking at at
the county in conjunction with not just
the Landfield but all of our Economic
Development
projects now this is a draft of the
landfill host
agreement we couldn't put the real
numbers in there but I could put a
dollar in just show you what how this
thing
works if we start at a dollar and we run
through between the the tonnage on
what's estimated the total funding on
the tonnage and the trucking savings and
our tipping fee savings we can look at
at the first year in in fees a total fee
of just a host fee is $250,000 a tonage
reduction of $100,000 Trucking Savings
of
400,000 with a total Savings of 500,000
the first year of imple implementing
first year now between the Tipping fee
and the savings we amounts to
$750,000 the first year now remember
this is a 30 this is a 30 acre track
with a 40-year
lifespan now as we move through it over
the 30 to 40 years the total impact of
this County just in host fees is
205 million at a dollar a ton which is
still under no negotiation our total
savings which is over 205 $20 million
for a total of $225
million just to the county over the next
40 year
period that is that's very impactful and
it's it's hard to not knowled it as an
industrial or an economic development
project now as landfill project what is
before
us if it started at a dollar per
ton it would progress up with the CPI
index to two $2.25 million this will be
available
later okay yes this is hypothetical this
is scenario and this why says draft
let's let's just everybody's said time
talk now it's time it's time our
talk scenario number
one scenario number one the county and
Nova agree on the host
agreement if we go through scenario
number one of course the landfill in the
county is is for residential and
business disposals this is part of the
component and this is part of the
business this is what we holl every day
at from
the TR sites and the transfer stations
this is where we go to of course it will
also clean up the Moss 3 property which
is a major environmental concern which
we have mentioned before and you're
going to see later there's 118 million
tons of Refuge still setting on that
site that has been estimated and
evaluated in reserves by Virginia
Department of energy the economic
opportunities of course it it clud
additional jobs we're projecting at a
minimum of 200 between the landfill and
what our adjacent properties would do in
economic businesses of course the
financial benefits is we get the host
fees additional real estate Machining
tool personal property and the liner
taxes that means with this in place in
scenario one it means no new taxes and
I'm you know no new taxes for a while
second scenario okay the county and Nova
disagree and that's what you do this is
not enough up and down both you either
agree with the host agreement or you
disagree it's a it's a
contract okay Nova continues with the
project and files legal suit because we
could not agree on the terms no host
agreement for County protection against
either legal environmental or financial
and of course new taxes or a disposal
fee must be considered because remember
this is going up half a million just in
disposal alone third scenario is the
county no would disagree on the host
agreement Nova abandons the three MOS 3
project the property will remain an
environmental issue at 100 million tons
will remain and the loss of Economic
Development and financials and the again
with either new taxes or disposal must
be considered I know that as we went
through this and looking at 100 and
going it through this
project of 118
of the legal components the
environmental and the financial issues
we had to look at the site we done many
site visits we've talked to Engineers
we've done research we have looked at
everything we've looked at everything
that y'all have been saying we have took
it down we went back to we've talked to
Consultants we have talked to
engineers and we had to look at what was
the best you know for Russell County and
if if there were vial so as we went
through this 118 million tons kept
sticking in my head what what this was
the site here of the M three plate plant
before we turned it into
that now as as this picture was taken as
of yesterday afternoon right after lunch
this is the this is where m 3 is at up
there you have 118 million tons which
has
cold cines in it and if anyone had done
the research was had to look at the
evaluation everybody kept evaluating
trash but no one was evaluating what was
on the land and I was going there's 118
million tons that has silicone aluminum
iron calcium magnesium potassium sulfur
titanium fros copper zinc arsenic
selenium Mercury and Lead I'm going
okay let's evaluate this this site on on
on what its economic impact or not just
economic but the environmental impact on
what this side
is so these are pictures here today this
is out the outer banks that has to be
removed before the landfill can go in
this is nothing but coal and coal Refuge
reject this is where the sale 30 acre
sale would go this has to be removed
before they can install it that's what
Mr Taylor had talked about on the slopes
well the slopes is going to have to be
taken down because the coal and the
reject has to be removed these
impalements have to be drained that
looks deep it's about running it
normally ranges from 5 to 7even feet and
of course it's going to have to go back
down to base there's a lot of boys in
here that in mining knows what I'm
talking about this got to go back down
to base that the way design it when they
reclaim and excavate this out based off
the Contours of this impalement the
slopes are not going to be as
detrimental of course they've got to go
still be approved by DEQ in part A and
Part B they will be in it during the
phase our people will be watching it
during the phase and development as we
go through it this is the back side of
the 30 Acres this is this is the
steepness of it and what has to be
removed to the front face now I'm going
to also
switch over
to
here and
here hang on a second it's not
switching yes H while you're looking for
something may I ask a question question
Mr chair would you allow me to ask a
question at this point time
thank as I look at this site and I know
where I'm standing um so this Pond is in
is a dam I'm I'm am I standing am I
hypothetically in my chair standing on
the second the dam to the second Pond
just trying to get my be yes I'm I'm at
the back of back of that what you're
looking at on is the toll the slope of
the
Dam yes sir and so uh I'm just asking
those questions because this is a dam
that is holding back another Pond that
is well twice as big as that one uh it
is but let let me go into the pictures
afterwards I'll be thank
[Music]
you is my mic went down okay there you
go um hang on just a second I got to get
this get it
down and go
up why isn't it
switching why is
it it doesn't make
sense sense you got me on over
there
oh it went to a different thing hold on
a second display
settings it went to a different
screen we're
good all we go thank you all
right all right now we're back live
again thank you thank you for the
patience here
okay this is video on what we did on the
drawing on yory on these impalements in
this site and and it's a 7even minute
video or 10 minute video and what I'm
going to do I'm going to speed this up
to take you in what the site looks at on
this this impalement where the 30 acre
track is and what I'm going to do I want
to put it in
perspective of what we're looking at
here and this is the site that we're
trying
that's an environmental
history so as we move through this side
and I will let it run here in a second
just to put it in perspective as we move
through
this as you can see this is the
impalement and and the walls of the
implment that has to be removed now
we're standing on the ground this is how
large this is in perspective and I'll
give you another perspective later where
it's my
my drone guy he was still learning how
to run the thing so give it be patient
you'll see it here in a second but the
truck is right
here it's a massive sight it is but
remember only the landfill is 30 Acres
or
2.4% so I think he's got his baring now
here we are on the ground in a truck
here we are and we're walking across
look at how deep these this coal and
reject is that's actually going you know
it's sitting into the water of the AL
duct here is
uh it's flying over the truck as we're
walking through as you can
see
all right and if you look at I'm right
here I'm going to have to jump across
because you see where it's breaching and
breaking off you see this into here
that's how
deep this fine and reject is got to
remember this side has been in effect
since
1958 that processing plant plants
process 30,000 tons of coal a day when
they heated up they processed the plant
the M cold that went out the reject went
up on the the hill you got 65 what 65
years of reject sitting on this mountain
that you're that is right now sitting
there now as you can
see as as we move through
this and this is again the sale now what
we did when we were up there we turned
around where the dam was that Miss Walsh
was talking about now see this is the
other side of the back side of the dam
and I'll go back and I'll stop it to
where you can see
it now
see there we go get a little
fast now turn it around this is how far
the water is away from the other so it's
not like it's holding a dam it's holding
the water it's remember what perspective
you got 1250 Acres here so here's my
truck as you can see at the top of the
slope shooting down to the toe of the
slope this is the buffer the buildout
elevation that this is of the water
that's on the back side which is clean
which was clean and and and kept clean
because of the
Reclamation but this front side that
y'all that is in this County this s
right here is not now I thought of
another thing in one of the pictures
that I got and this is just the current
pictures andang second of Google Earth
it puts it in real perspective for you
this is what you're looking
at this is what's on the ground
today we have a major site that's
environmentally take a look at this of
what it is remember the back impalement
back here the back which is 30 Acres
which is about into this area this has
to be removed too and that is part of
the process in the escavation for the
lightweight aggregate so again we have
three scenarios that we can go through
the board can approve it we move forward
esate clean it out or Nova can run
through you don't have a host agreement
you don't have protection or number
three they can walk away and this will
slay on the ground 118 million tons all
this time that we were going through
this I kept waiting on somebody to pull
a water sample on the front face of this
to see where what was coming off of this
area and I never did get it I was always
getting data on trash and what it was
and household and speculation on
hazardous stuff and nuclear and and this
but on that front face word DS Creek is
and around the adjacent ponds what what
is what is in there as as it says here
into
this as anybody the boys back here they
will tell you that again you got all of
these compounds heavy metals heavy lead
and zinc that's that comes from
Co so again what do we do with 118
million tons that's that's what it comes
down to and and what the county can do
with the 30 acre and that's the sale
that will last 50 years that will be
contained monitored by the county and
also monitored by
DEQ so that
concludes the our presentation to the
Board of Supervisors and now
we welcome questions from the board
concerning this on these
presentations okay thank you Mr
Lester board members let just open it up
if you have questions to any of our
presenters here please go ahead and ask
I got a question uh in relation I guess
to the protection uh side of this as far
as the bond
that they that they have to
maintain
uh you know it was my Bel that uh that
the bond would protect the county and
the
citizens uh long term when we're all
gone our the generations after us would
be protected in a way that they would be
covered uh legally and financially with
the bond can you speak in regards to
that yeah let me let me speak generally
and I'll let Dave talk a little bit
about the the bonding part of it but one
of the one of the things that the county
has insisted upon is is a multiple layer
including an umbrella umbrella policy of
insurance policies that would operate
while it's running but in addition DEQ
requires a closure
Bond and that means that the every year
you're going to jump in here correct me
if I'm wrong every year there is a
re-evaluation of the site a
determination made as to what would it
cost to close it out cap it and operate
and and maintain it in
perpetuity and then you have to buy a
bond for that amount and it usually goes
up every year in fact the county I think
is still paying a bond Bond on its
closed landfill so the landfill the the
closure bond is designed to cover the
cost whatever happened that the landfill
needed to be closed maybe it's reached
its useful life and it's closed then the
money is always there through that Bond
thank you the only thing I'd add the
only thing only thing I'd add to that is
um
maybe referring back to one of Jeff's
slides um that uh DEQ retains The
Authority um to go ahead and uh close
down a landfill maybe when the owners
aren't ready for it to be closed down
just because of non-compliance and
things like that then that Bond will be
in place uh even at that point even if
the if the uh landfill has to be closed
down
involuntarily um the the money is there
to uh uh in the bond uh to um to close
that site out the the other thing maybe
I'd mention is that uh the state does
have DEQ does have an environmental
emergency fund that allows it to go in
hire a contractor and begin to take um
action uh if necessary um uh when if an
owner is not um uh not being uh
compliant in a timely manner and then
would turn around and um try to recover
those uh those funds from the owner so
there are a couple of things in in place
uh in the state system that helps to uh
assure that it can be closed out when it
needs to be
appreciate other board
members yeah I've got a question about
um the liability you said there's 118
million tons correct yes ma'am okay so
if we decided to
not do this landfill or what that third
option you were talking about that
liability for the 118 million tons does
that not fall on the land
owner hold it down please hold it
down I mean I'm not trying to be
difficult I'm just I'm I'm really trying
to understand because if you have
liability with a um you know a landfill
and and I buy any type of land
anywhere do and I'm not a lawyer but do
I not assume liability for that can can
you clear that up for
me can you hear me can you hear me now
you got what you got to remember and
I've got legal counsel here and you know
DEQ too one thing about what you got to
remember about what we call Nova right
now their permit is for the
Reclamation now that does doesn't mean
they can't stop that there's no when
they go in for a
permit they it doesn't say that they
have to remove all 118 million tons
right now that permit is valid and it is
in brief and it's as far as the Le the
removal is it's in compliance with a
Virginia energy permit so you're saying
what is there currently 118 million tons
are that's in compliance that's in
compliance even with itally
correct that is in compliance wow
okay did I miss anything guys is that I
want some clarification on Tara's
question I GNA ask the audience to hold
it down so we all hear please David that
is their
property that is it is a private
landfill yes that is no I'm talking
about the whole 1,00 Acres that is their
property the 1250 acres is their
property so are they resp responsible
for any problems that occur whether we
go on with the landfill or not are they
still not responsible if we say
no who's responsible for getting that up
cleaning that up yeah that that's kind
of where I was going yeah who is
responsible for cleaning that 118
million T if that is such a a detriment
to our environment then some somebody
needs to clean it up right well or is
that something that they'd have to apply
for again I mean I don't know I'm
genuinely asking I have no well and
again the the Virginia energy permit
that they have they it doesn't say in
the permit you must remove 118 million
coal that that's not in the permit what
that you hold it down please for what
that permit has under a DQ Virginia I
mean Virginia energy is it's a
Reclamation a reclamation has totally
different regulations than a
landfill reason being is that that
Reclamation as long as they're meeting
the permit guidelines and they're in
compliance with it as long as they put
those in longterm it's just every every
other mind Reclamation that's these guys
know there are certain things they have
to do that doesn't mean they have to
remove that 118 million tons they just
have to meet certain water quality air
quality stabilization they do not have
to treat the le as long as that
containment on that side is maintained
right and and I get that I guess just
the way it seemed in the presentation it
was more of like well if you don't do
this then you're stuck with that and
that's bad but you're telling me that it
does meet requirements so maybe it's not
as bad it it's it it is it meets the
Virginia energy permit okay and and for
that okay as far as Reclamation they
could probably just cover it up they can
it's like a surface mine operation cover
it up fourt material seed it Le and that
was and and these guys here they know
that too and you could cover it up with
4 foot of that was looked at too but
remember the you got 118 million tons
it's got to be covered so that from an
economic perspective is is not not
viable one the second thing is the once
you cover it up what you got to remember
there's 118 million tons this side has
been in place since
1958 that 118 million tons as these guys
will tell you heats up that ground with
four ground four foot of ground cover
will eventually it will permit up and it
does have hotpots in it so those has got
to be dealt with
well there there was a recent study that
was done by Virginia energy and I have a
copy of it that came to the conclusion
they evaluated all these gries in
Southwest
Virginia and they they had done this in
Pennsylvania before and I think that's
where Virginia energy got the idea to do
it to evaluate and try to determine the
best way to treat these things and in
reading the
conclusion uh the summary and conclusion
of this report they decided the best
thing that could be done would be to
totally remove all these things burn
them in a power plant like the one in
Virginia City so that all that material
is basically gone you're basically
taking it all back back down at least
the carbonaceous material you're taking
it over there and burning it the Rock
and such they've just now come up no
with this idea of doing this lightweight
aggregate which was done back in the 60s
by clinchfield Coal Company I've got
some brochures on that uh they they I
think they were selling for $78 T back
then and uh about the time coal hit $200
T they gave it up because it was more
lucra to to mine than to produce
lightweight aggregate but uh the
conclusion of that report was that
that's really the only way to get rid of
these Gober is totally just take them
out of there take them over wherever you
can get them burn them and you know try
to bury the any of the other material in
this case they're going to make the
lightweight AG out of so you're
basically taking almost everything out
there
almost in fact one of the
recommendations of the the study and I
thought this was really unique they said
that there's enough go in Virginia to
justify construction of another Power
Plant just like the one over at Virginia
City right now so so I had a question
about those hotpots as well is that
something that could just burn and cause
an issue and if so
is once again is that not their
liability
well as a c as a cold side these these
get hot now has it got to the point of
flame just burning like a an active burn
this this side has not went that way but
just based off reports you know it does
have hotpots in it so what you can do
with it and you can't do with it like
ground cover and the rest it's going to
make it very difficult that will have to
be evaluated but I mean again you keep I
I keep going back to and these are very
good questions that you're asking but
had the amount of ground cover to cover
118 million tons it would not be
economic fible and I don't think any
developer would take on that
responsibility a ground cover of8
million well and I understand that but
when you buy land you buy the liability
with it I would think so I I mean I get
I'm just confused as to how the
liability works on one thing but it
doesn't on the other I guess that's what
I'm trying to hold it down please yeah
and I mean and those are good those are
very good questions again and again the
Virginia energy which is DM and which is
now the Virginia energy they have her
permit for
Reclamation and the ones that have the
guys in the minds you know from g county
then that's just you know they know the
difference between Act of mind and
Reclamation there the the regulations
for environmental safeties and concerns
under that VG at Virginia energy permit
is it's not the same as the regulations
that would go in place if you made a
landfill L of it those expounded only
thing they have to do is make sure that
certain regulations is is put in place
so the groundwater doesn't go into the
streams and and that's why you see the
impalements that's why it's designed to
hold the water in place up there
I guess another thing is we really don't
know what kind of contractual
Arrangements they have with Virginia
energy you know when they took on this
aband right land reclamation project
well does DEQ have something to do with
that as far as the regulation of that I
mean with whatever contracts they have
with that no not DQ or well who I mean
who department so it would be just be
solely on the okay yes Virginia
and I'm sure they they've got areas and
they probably Bond on all those areas
but it's substantially substantially
less what would be required on
land yes David I had I had a question
you know those additional things that we
need looked at I think we finally
decided as long as we had it in the host
agreement it would be looked at as part
of the permitting process
right like the mind subid and slopes
ility all that would have to be looked
at all of those things would be required
by theq in one form or another yes right
okay anybody H yeah yes have questions
I've got I got a lot of questions break
them up so that that maybe other people
can speak in
between
um Mr uh other um on your part of the
presentation it was said that the county
will have to amend the solid waste
management plan to include this
facility is that something that what
what what if we don't me the solid waste
management well I think the Sol I think
in order to submit your compliance
certification to
DEQ this site would have to show up as
identified in your Solid Waste
orance okay so we would have to
designate this property as a solid waste
facility yes you'd have to show it in
the ordinance as a solid waste it's
already shown is industrial gotcha yeah
okay
um you also said that the by state code
a host agreement is required for a
private landfill to be place is that
correct yes
okay then how can scenario 2 and three
or actually two
happen because don't scenario two
suggests that if no host agreement is is
agreed
to that the Nova project would move
forward with project and file legal suit
no host agreement for County protections
that doesn't seem consistent with with
that requirement of a host agreement
yeah Lono you want
to I I think the question is what would
Nova do if the county negotiated in bad
faith and did not approve a host
agreement that is the question what what
then I can't tell you what they would do
one of the scarios is they might file
suit and move forward anyway and what
would that suit require would that
require us to negotiate a host with I
can't answer that with the only if a
court said you
would in there it said they have a legal
right of use does that require us to
give them a host scre I don't think so
so they but the state code requires them
to have a host agreement in place in
order to put the landfill in so if we
don't agree to a host agreement does
that mean that they cannot put land
in I think that that the solid waste act
requires that there be a host
agreement I believe when Mr Lester put
that point in there that what they're
saying is that doesn't mean that you
couldn't be challenged by Nova that it
was being un reasonably withheld or that
it was being um uh um not negotiated in
good
faith which could be the grounds for a
lawsuit but I don't know if they would
do that or
not okay Mr chair may I yes ma'am um
that's not my question so I have several
more but I want to tag on to what Mr
Kaiser is making a point on
and
um I'm about to lose my train of thought
so please forgive me because there's
tons of questions floating around in my
head so however aren't we doing our due
diligence here and aren't we trying to
not be arbitrary and capricious which
are my new favorite words by the way
that I use a lot you can Google those
and um so aren't we doing that now in in
dealing with
our the public comment taking comment
talking about it so aren't we doing that
already to try to show that we're trying
to
be I think you are okay okay so so that
kills my scenario too of Sue me I'm
sorry I'm just point blanking things Mr
Lester's shaking his head but I'm
disagreeing it doesn't mean that
somebody's not GNA Sue okay well that's
fine but what it means is is your your
question to me was are you all at this
point in time exercising due diligence
and good faith and I would say yes you
are thank you at this point in time okay
yeah so I I mean I want to make it I'm
gonna make two points here because the
the audience has is here listening and
and they're doing a great job of that
but they have been badgering us I guess
that may be my country word as to give
me more information but what we're doing
is we're trying to look at all Avenue
that we can uh because that number two
scenario I'm just going to tell you
straight up is a no for me that's that
ain't that ain't working but okay we'll
we'll move forward with that so if I may
indulge me one more thing okay I'm going
to I'm going to segue to something else
right now that's on my list and it says
the limitation transfer of ownership I'm
Mr Souther that was in your presentation
by the way I appreciate your information
I think it's very worthwhile listening
to you so it says does this allow for um
a negotiation of a landfill in the
future if it's
sold the way that it's I'm sorry okay
you go ahead and I'll ask you something
yeah I'm not
sure I'm not sure if I completely
understood your question but let me tell
you what the
current draft says and what the Count's
insisting upon
that
before Nova could sell that landfill to
another party the County Board of
Supervisors would have to approve that
sale yes thank you and but do we get the
opportunity to renegotiate a land a
total host agreement or once this host
agreement is agreed upon it's a sellable
item yes and
yes huh okay thank you thank you Mr
chair I'll wait a
while I did have a question um also
about the uh leachate treatment plan um
pfos are a big deal right now and I know
that you know they have found them
everywhere when you're processing do we
or do they have a plan in order to
remove those from the water before they
dumped into dumps Creek or whatever
because you know from what I'm reading
those stay forever
right it's okay whatever it is P I don't
know whatever it is it's POA and and
they're called for other compounds um
and I know I mean I just read a quick
statistic on it
84% um are found there 5% leave via
lee8 pooa all all of those whatever all
of those compounds um actually what's
required is being uh determined by EPA
right now that's a thing that the
federal government does there there are
a whole lot of uh elements to um pooa
from uh um biosol as land application to
anything else um is that going to be
another one of those things where we
make them meet or exceed current
regulations that will be a question uh
for DEQ if they but you but you get what
I'm saying because here I know what
you're saying yeah here you all had
spoken about meeting or exceeding the
current regulations and if we're going
to do that on certain things I would
think that certainly things that stick
around forever would be on high PRI if
if if
EPA requires a um a water quality
standard that has to go into um
Wastewater permit
then that would um may or may not be
required here this my guess is going to
be that if EPA requires that they're
going to require not require it across
the board for everything um and I'll
just um I'll just say that
um the the odds of there being a p
requirement I think are long that's just
me speculating um if they had to meet
what is now the current uh drinking
water standard for uh uh for pooa that's
being proposed by EPA that would be
economically and technically impossible
oh
okay all
right and and if pooa is there it's
going into dump Creek right
now Mr ker you having some other stuff
yeah um is there one ways I know we're
not exactly talking about the host
agreement we are but we aren't because
we don't have the final um copy of it
but there ways that we can restrict
areas of collection for instance if we
want to say we don't want trash from New
Jersey or New York or or
Maryland I wonder I didn't hear the last
part of that you're saying that you can
are there can you through the host
agreement restrict The Source colle yeah
they're collection where they're pulling
from
yes is that part of the considerations
of our post agreement I'm I'm sorry is
that part of the considerations that
we're looking at on our host agreement
is restricting their collection sites
no Mr jarif I
may I understood his question to be that
uh the host agreement could say nothing
for Maryland and nothing from New York
and you said the answer to that is yes
no they could put Geographic limitations
but you probably can't identify a
particular State say we don't want New
Jersey way and and the reason the reason
I ask that question is because there's a
um a Supreme Court decision case that
says that this is covered by the
Commerce Clause and uh so you got to be
real careful about what solid waste is a
protected
commodity according to the supr Supreme
Court governed by rules of interstate
commerce but there are
certain um other land all the counties
that have entered into commercial host
agreements where they've put like a
geographic limitation yeah so you know
500 miles or a th000 miles or something
of that sort the reason I ask is because
the Green Ridge Cumberland County host
agreement
restricts um trash from those places New
Jersey New York and Maryland it's
probably
unconstitutional but don't say it but
don't tell them said
that it's it's thousand State Commerce
yeah but you can't impose things like
Geographic um I say I'm familiar with
several agreements that limit Solid
Waste coming from say more than 500
miles
away whatever gotcha
okay I hope we're not offending anyone
in the room that might be from New
Jersey or have family in New Jersey um
another question uh you mentioned only
non-hazardous household waste um and
again not to overstep here but the last
host agreement version that I've seen
includes I'll read it
off municipal waste which understand is
household waste Industrial Waste
construction waste demolition waste and
debris waste as collectible as
acceptable forms of waste
um but I mean I don't know the full
definition of household waste but
construction Demolition and debris and
Industrial do not to me classify as
household waste so I wonder if you could
elaborate
on the differentiation between household
waste and what's in the L in the version
that I've seen of the host
agement well I I don't know a lot of
detail about that other than um in the
eq's uh Solid Waste
um regulations and permitting Authority
those things that you listed off are
allowed to go into what are called Solid
Waste
landfills uh and and not hazardous ways
landfills so so the language that's
currently in the host agreement says if
you get this permitted as a municipal
Solway landfill anything that DEQ
regulations permit under that
designation would be allowed to be
disposed of things that are not allowed
to be disposed of can't be both through
theq regulations but also through the
host
agreement yeah and one one of the key
terms and conditions on this the key
word is nonhazardous
so what if um I just want clarification
what you're saying is if DEQ says it's
permissible in a solid waste facility as
nonhazardous waste we cannot restrict
that
further no we could we could so we could
say household waste only be Mak it very
difficult to operate a landfill because
who knows if somebody slipped a 2x4 in
there you know um yes you can restrict
what can come into that although they
have they' have a permit
DQ's permits don't distinguish between
Municipal solid waste and
say um solid you know debris
construction debris for example
construction debris can go into a
municipal Solid Waste landfill but
industrial cannot am I correct U
nonhazardous
Industrial Waste
can under DQ regulation onaz
Industrial Waste can't go into Municipal
solid
land question can more stringent um
guidelines or a more stringent wording
to that particular DEQ minimum standard
statement that can change in a host
agreement are you saying can you change
the definition of permissible
waste I don't think I'm saying that but
okay um stringent is my word
okay I think I understand what you're
asking me okay but the answer would be
yes that you could say you can't
allow to before in construction waste
okay yeah so so we can we can in a host
agreement we can go above and
beyond what the minimum standard is in
the Virginia code of a host agreement
that says it there's things that has to
be in there yes but we as a community
and a Board of Supervisors can go go
above and beyond all of these yes you
can you can exceed the EQ regulations
through the host agreement that's all I
need to know thank you even though our
Solid Waste ordinance says you can put
it in as long as it meets state federal
regulations
didn't you say we had to change that
ordinance is that the same one that's a
solid waste plan we had to change
got I think you'd have to amend your
Solid Waste
or okay one more thing in order to do
that yes okay forgive me uh one more
thing uh Mr sther did you say something
to the effect and I swear I can't find
it in my notes um something to the
effect of a screening a screening of
where is that somebody help me a
screening of the when it comes through a
transfer so that how would we know how
how would anybody know what your as you
say they might slip a tu four in on you
might slip something else a way screen
yes there's a screening process you
explain that to me yeah DQ up requires
but also the host br requires that there
be an operation plan where so waste
coming into the facility is screened you
will see often at um uh commercial
landfills you will see radiation
detection
equipment to make sure that any waste
coming in is screened and doesn't have
any radiation second thing is you'll see
them put waste and spread it spread it
Dave you could know more about this than
me but spread the solid waste and have
people on the work site making sure that
there's nothing that appears hazardous
in the U in the waste okay yeah that
that's done on a sampling basis that's
not done with everything so that's not
an that was my question it's just it's a
random sampling or is it every I I'm not
sure what percentage is is sampled but
the point I was going to make is that's
a key role for the Le landfill Lees on
during that screening to identify if
there are some any violations and and
report that back to the county
[Music]
okay um I had a question you mentioned
something about um this does not require
a Citizens Advisory Group is that
something you know it doesn't require it
but is that something we could consider
yes
okay the distinction is if the code says
if it is a a county owned landfill right
have a county advisory Comm if it's a
privately owned Landfield you don't but
you could but we could and that advisory
committee what what role would that have
is that in um negotiations with the host
agreement is that like how does that
fall or do we set that if we decided to
if you decided you wanted to have an
advisory committee the Board of
Supervisors could establish an advisory
not just with the board but with
citizens correct yes okay
yeah okay I got another
one uh the Bold design was mentioned and
I've had several U constituents asking
about isn't this
design potential to be another Bristol
situation where we have an issue of
recirculating Le water or a failure of
the system because of the
design Mr Palin yeah I think the answer
to that is uh is it's different because
there is um a gravity Outlet to this
particular facility uh there would be a
gravity Outlet there is no gravity
Outlet in the Bristol system as I
understand it all uh just infiltrates
into groundwater okay so the when they
dig down do we know how far down they're
going to have to dig to get to Natural
Contour I would say the answer to that
is no but um most of the digging is
going to be lateral and not vertical
would be my
expectation so we don't expect that
they're going to go any deeper than what
the bottom of the pond is this is I'm
sorry let me just uh uh qualify this as
conjectural but um I would be very
surprised um if the EQ were willing to
uh permit a uh a landfill that didn't
have a gravity Outlet um that that and
one of the things that um I was still
with the EQ when all of this came U up
in in Bristol and I'll um I'll just say
that it was very clear that that
facility uh would not have been
permittable um in today's um today's
understanding the regulations that was
built a long time ago before we
understood as much about landfills as we
do today do do most current modern
landfills have gravity drains or are
they using comp
systems I'm sorry I don't I don't know
um all of the landfills uh they they
most they have land lee8 collections
systems that are um above ground and
that lee8 is either uh treated uh with
some sort of wastewater treatment
facility or it's carried off uh um off
site again I'm going to qualify that by
saying the more recently built landfills
a landfill design as I said earlier has
gotten much better in the last uh 20
plus years than it was 50 years ago
could we require them to have that in
the host agreement that they have a
gravity
drain leachate
system I would say that you you could uh
propose that anything that we talk about
in in a host agreement has the word
agreement attached to
it I know that when Andrew and I went up
and looked at it I think they were
pretty close underneath that water there
was only about five fet of water when we
looked at and they said they were right
close to natural right there
and he talked about cutting a trench on
the right hand side so that he can get
gravity flow that's how drain water yeah
that would be a part of the part of the
I guess that trench would be the groundw
maybe the gravity flow that any kind of
Lee collection out there I believe
that's what you would expect the EQ to
require so that it could then all the
Lee could be collected and treated in
the appropriate manner when when Steve
and I VIs visited the site uh they told
us that the pond finds had been dredged
out and that would have been done by
clinchfield to Natural Contour now there
still could be some fines left at what
got from the ddge but we were told
everything was dredged to Natural
Contour so what we saw was the water
anything below the water was natural
Contour based off what they told us
yeah Mr chair may I yes ma'am um
Mr
palor so we're talking about dewatering
a pond we're talking about this
particular middle Pond where the
proposed landfill would
go now um the dewatering
process will
require to bring in a uh a waste
treatment plant mobile waste treatment
plant so how how is that going to is
that part of the host agreement or or is
that to be done before they enter into a
host
agreement well again you're asking me uh
to speculate for DEQ sure pleas so i'
like to
caveat with that um my um expectation of
what the EQ would do uh first is uh take
a number of water quality samples to see
if treatment was required and then uh
and to see what treatment was required
and and then um uh it could be um some
sort of uh if there's some treatment
that's required it's it's very possible
that that could be like on an 18wheeler
kind of a situation that you could run
it through that before it goes into dump
Creek but that's going to be most likely
determined by water quality analyses
before the action takes place I I would
think they can dewater it under their
mining permit Under The Refuge permit
well because it will drain down to a
siment Bas that's what you you you may
be right about that again have to meet
theu whatever the I don't know the I
don't know the mining requirement
regulations and there is some overlap so
like I said my um my speculation
qualifier that is still there Mr chair
um for the for the public can we um let
them know who is on the host committee
who is actually negotiating all of these
things like like you know so they know
yeah that's Lou and myself
and then who else sits in on those
meetings well Mr Lester
and who else L that was the attorneys
and cons David of course David's been on
there and Jeff yes and then I guess Nova
representes yes and and TRC T TR TRC and
Ernie H okay when will we be able to see
a fin that do you think we
negotiated right but can't tell you
exactly when we've raised a lot of
questions here I like to drastically
change that that could yeah okay because
I know the last meeting you said that we
would that you were thinking we'd get to
vote on it in a couple of three weeks I
watch think but now not okay I just
wanted to make sure because I don't want
to be one of those where it's and I
don't I'm not saying that you would do
this to us I'm just I'm just throwing
this out here for the crowd I don't want
it to be like I get the host agreement
tonight and we vote two days because I
imagine it's a pretty big document we
wouldn't have had this meeting if feel
like we very
close but again some of the things she
brought up here tonight change that
could change that okay thanks uh Mr
chair uh full disclosure I've not been
in a meeting since
uh
November but but you are on that and you
do and you were chair when that this all
came about correct I was chair and asked
for this consultant to make sure that we
were moving in the
direction uh that we needed to for the
best of the environment and the best of
the citizens and that's exactly what Mr
Paylor and Mr Souther has said and Mr
Lester has reiterated that just want to
make sure that everybody knew that
though okay all right
um please the uh host agreement requires
studies traffic
studies other
studies to whose satisfaction if it's
not a d DEQ
requirement or a minimum requirement to
whose
satisfaction are these studies done and
how thoroughly so a good example would
be the traffic study is it just go out
there and count the number of cars
coming down the road I want to know what
impacts I mean how detailed are these
studies and what sets that that
requirement of the detail of these
studies that's required by the solid
waste act so DEQ would step in and say
one of the things we're going to look at
is infrastructure and to make sure that
the transportation infrastructure for
the proposed facility is adequate okay
that's looking at roads Rail and all
that I would assume so that is correct
uh if I may Mr chair um the
transportation part um
by
DEQ um theq defers to to V do and V do
um uh says that things are okay or
they're not and and the EQ relies uh
exclusively on VT for the
transportation piece of it so um
that um that that is also the who's to
whose satisfaction is may be a question
for the host agreement as well yes uh
another one I had was Lee or liner tax
youall have to excuse my ignorance I
don't know what a liner tax is explain
that to
me well a line of tax is when you you're
evaluating a a landfill you of course
you have the real estate for the land
itself which is right now under Virginia
energy which is Reclamation so it it's
it's not taxable as a real estate as a
viable industrial site so
we would start moving into the taxation
of the real estate the Machining tool
the personal property of of that site
well the liner tax is what we call it
and that's what the state is it shows
that that 30 Acres that cell one is what
is being developed as a fixed asset so
it gives them a a approvement of what
that landfill is based proportional off
the land and what is being developed and
what's being utilized it's and it's
called a liner tax so is that a yearly
tax a one is a yearly tax
okay um and then one thing I didn't see
on their leate treatment uh I'm assuming
that if they were to treat the lee8
rather than ship it on rail we would get
financial benefit from that as well
locally if if if they treated uh if they
put a treatment plant on side of course
that's their equipment in their facility
of course we get the machine into them
and rest off of it now if they
contracted with you
know a facility yeah then right now but
as far as what you got to remember is
between the real estate the personal
property the Machining tool the liner
tax also that you'll get a mineral tax
off this AG that actually will pass
through that will be able to be sold the
same way at the top of the query would
like uh of course eing and the rest of
the queries we have a mineral
tax okay that wasn't in your figures for
that is correct that is correct because
one of the reasons on the aggregate is
we don't have in the contract a definite
Reserve to do an estimate yet for the
aggregate as like I said from the five
Concepts they came up with they're
moving through each and every one of
these so we're still trying to get that
number but we're very much aware of if
it's there and it's a
possibility and just to elaborate a
little bit on the certification of
Interstate Commerce and it's interstate
commerce comes into play even between
the counties anytime you travel either
by Rail Road or a now one of the things
that stipulates if it comes in on rail
whether it's you know North or
CSX that that comes across interstate
commerce lines one of the things that if
it comes out and just pick a state just
as an analysis or a scenario is if it
comes out of New Jersey before that rail
will go before that's disposal that
waste will go on there that that rail
company requires a certification from
that municipality that there's it's
nonhazardous because they it will be a
shli contract if they was to catch them
calling something that is not legible
under that contract as it comes in
through the different states each state
has its own interstate commerce and
regulations that if they get in
compliance out of compliance then there
the railroads would be held liable for
it and as they come in and croach up p p
Virginia of course Virginia is very
restricted probably the most restriced
state in in third restrictive state in
the Union as far as compliance and when
those cars that show up up it comes in
with a certification saying this is
nonhazardous household waste or whatever
is formidable so but then you got to go
even farther you got to have the the
eyes on you got to have the radon
detectors the nuclear detectors you
still got to go through it comes out
onto the floor same way our landfill
does we take a look at it to make sure
there's nothing Hazard if you if
something hits that floor with you you
got remember there's cameras on here
that are being mon on this as way ours
is from DEQ if something hits that floor
that is that's out of compliance that
has to stop immediately we have to stop
operations right then if it's a
hazardous if it's a hazardous material
or component even if it comes to ours
this is Virginia regulation we have to
call a HazMat team in and remove it we
have to call the people it's just not
that our guys just putting it into a
loader and we move it off site do this
we have have to call DEQ in and it has
to be evaluated based off what kind of
harm it will do or the
hazard Lonzo I got a question uh which I
guess this kind of follows up on that as
far as the economic situation that the
Count's under because when I was on the
Waste Management Authority I was looking
at ways to do recycling to reduce the
amount of garbage that we had to send to
Tennessee and
yeah on our board that's combined of
Dickinson banon and Taz there's two
Representatives that represent each
County and and we combine our trash to
get the best deal we can it's like the
more tonage you have the cheaper you get
it taking it to Tennessee what happens
is I think that Bristol has caused an
actual nightmare with the inflated cost
of garbage and uh that's that's going to
be something that this board's going to
have to deal deal with it went up
$350,000 didn't it this 465,000 465,000
the end of this year by the end of this
year so what happens if Tennessee
decides they're making so much gravy now
off of Bristol that that's put us in a
bind because of the next negotiated
contract they come back and say I expect
this much per
time all right initially somebody's got
a pay for that the taxpayers are going
to have to pay for that and there's
nobody in in this room that wants
increased cost with the way things are
and this bid Administration and
inflation I mean uh every everybody is
struggling right now with uh cost of
groceries the cost of medicine
electricity electricity that we've been
battling with that now what what is to
say that Tennessee decides they're not
going to take it anymore unless we pay
an astronomical fee to have ours take to
Tennessee what position does that put us
in where do we where do we take it I
know we've talked to tassel County and
and theirs was outrageous the fee was
and no offense to my brothers in tazel
County but it was very expensive to take
it there what position does that put the
county in and I want the citizens to
know this nobody wants
uh things in our County that could be
detrimental or hazardous or lifechanging
negative life-changing things to our
citizens nobody I do not want anything
and when this was sprung on us I was
just throw back by uh as far as want to
be in Russell County but what what uh
mechanism is in place for our citizens
in regards to the economic issue that
could have on a positive or negative
aspect of this David the one thing about
it is we're under contract we about six
months aren't we long that threeyear
contract we're guaranteed three years
but I calculated I calculated the cost
we're at $2.6 million for a
garbage by by the end of this fiscal
year by the end of that contract will be
up to $3
million C waste disposal that's that's
using the
18,800 tons that we've averaged for the
last four or five years uh after that
there's no guarantee we'll have to go
back and renegotiate again is that is
that right Lonzo yes sir renegotiate
contract like you said we're up to
465,000 while we're projecting up for
the just increase this year we have a
threeyear contract with Waste Management
Authority to go to Bristol they're the
only game in I mean blun they're the
only game in town I mean period so right
now we're at we're held hostage by that
Landfield that's in Blunt which we only
have a three-year contract remaining on
yeah once that contract expires based
off the cost of deflation what's going
up just over the next three years we're
looking under another half million what
it comes after that who knows you're
you're going they're the only game in
town so as as y'all had seen on the host
agreement we have multiple ways of
saving not just from the generation of
the host fee i' like station over the 40
Years of $200 million but you also have
a sasing that we can do inhouse of
course our transportation is going to go
down our Transfer Station cost is going
to go down our fuel cost is going to go
down it's a half a million dollars just
to begin with in savings just from that
that we're not sending to Tennessee
right now what we're doing and what a
lot of people don't understand is this
is our disposal sites all 11 of them
come into the transfer station we also
pay for that to go out to blunt what you
got to understand also is the county
foots the bills for the towns we take
the homeacre town we take Leon town all
the trash in here this C the county pays
for every ton that goes into blunt so as
we keep
all of that is is going to increase as
time goes on per the contract the fuel
cost goes up and the environmental fees
go up it it could be and then it's
almost like the Regional Jail we're at
the mercy of the regional jail as far as
inmates where at Mercy we will be a well
the problem is you can't afford to do it
yourself because of the construction
that's why this is a private Landfield I
mean you're you're looking at probably
125 million to do a landfill if you're
doing we just don't have the resources
to do anything like that the permitting
process alone and David can expound on
this a little bit more the permitting
process for they put the first bag of
trash on the ground probably cost you
$10 million Am I Wrong Mr chair um it's
a little bit after 9: and we're going to
have discussion afterward too could we
go ahead and let the public speak
because some of them are if the board is
through asking questions yeah I was just
thinking cuz we have time
after this I have one more question
please attorney um what if the uh folks
that have this oh I'm declaring
bankruptcy I walk out the door I I don't
I can't handle this anymore what happens
to the
Landfield uh the uh Financial bond that
is um uh required as part of the Perman
with the EQ uh would then be used to
close the landfill presumably
permanently and and if the bond is not
enough DQ has what they call a super
fund that would come into play if it
exceeds that to make sure that this
environmentally can be
closed Mr chair yes ma'am indulge me one
more question and I I'm with Miss D here
to my left I think the public needs to
be able to get their their comments in I
know they've sit here a long time and
listened to us so with it with it being
said that um we're under the gun so to
speak to how long
realistically is it going to take to get
this
permitted with minimum
standards with minimum standards now if
I'm going above and beyond minimum
standards that means that that's going
to delay a lot so are we talking eight
years to get a
land I'm not sure that the minimum or
other standards you know depending on
what they are I don't know that they
would or wouldn't uh make it take longer
but I think we
are historically speaking if the part
part A and Part B permits are issued by
DEQ um in two years that would be really
fast compared to what they've done in
the past wouldn't surprise me for it to
go three I know uh it might it might be
too and then uh you we'd have to talk to
uh the owners about uh you know what
it's going to take before the landfill
is operational but um I I would be
surprised if we're talking eight years
but we are certainly most likely talking
more than three okay so just as an aside
for people that may not
done as much of research as some of the
rest of us um the example in is it
Cumberland County have they ever opened
that landfill
yet they have not uh gotten the permit
yet there has been um ongoing both
um uh both uh legislative and other
kinds of uh uh challenges the uh that
have uh kept part of that has been at
the um um at the determination of the
owners of the or the proposers of the
landfill that they haven't finalized
their application with the EQ for
reasons of public controversy and
legislative controversy and things like
that it has um had to deal with a very
large environmental justice component
which is a thing that's um um not well
understood um legally right now and that
has drugg it out too okay and one more
thing and I'm I promise I'm done um
Cumberland county is a county in the
middle part of their Commonwealth under
heavy
clay they
are the RS do the RS lean a little bit
more toward the Eastern end of Virginia
because of the the soil's there um and
is it harder here for carsten cave and
[Music]
Mining the challenges are just different
for Carston cave than Mining and I would
say that uh there has been more de more
development of landfills in um um you
know east of the appalachin anyway uh
than there has been west of so uh but
I'm not uh prepared to say that the rags
are uh necessarily um uh leaning one way
or another okay but those uh issues that
I outlined in my presentation are unique
to this part of the state and and
certainly need to be addressed in the
East permit and one more thing I
promised I'd be quiet but um the last
time any landfill was permitted in the
Commonwealth of Virginia you were
sitting in the hot seat how long ago was
that I had only been well
it was 2007 and I had been DEQ director
for one year thank
you Mr Hensley do you have any
questions thing that I wanted to ask was
the solid waste ordinance has been
mentioned here twice tonight and I've
talked to a lot of people even sitting
in here about that why why are we having
this public hearing rather than public
hearing to change that ordinance because
this ordinance needs to be changed
before a host agreement can be agreed
upon what are we doing here
tonight it's not the host it's not the H
the disposal order the plan it's the
plan that we have that says that this
will
be as s will be under the compr
comprehension plan and of the counties
and of the planning district the plan
will go that industrial St will change
it's classification from a Virginia
Virginia energy reclaim permit to a DEQ
permit so does that plan have to be
voted on by the
board the the plan has to be approved by
the board
yes so shouldn't we be discussing that
plan instead of what we're discussing
tonight well
it if you if you if you don't go with
the host agreement there's you know the
plan is like I said in in
10.1 the plan can be revised we have a
plan it just does not include that
landfill as as one of our terminal it
has the regional Waste Management
Authority but it doesn't have the
landfill in it you would have to have
that component to where we could
transport and utilize that from the
county operations but it just seems to
me that discussing that plan would be
more financially beneficial to the
citizens of the county rather than
paying attorneys and environmental
consultants and getting people out here
on a Friday night that's just my
[Music]
opinion
right
yeah
if none of the board members have any
further questions let's call a f minute
bathroom break and then if somebody will
bring me the list the people that signed
in back
there let
me
e
for
is way I look I don't know why I came
I'm certified underground I came from
County my parents still living
know if we can if we everybody take
their seats we'll try to get started
back
please how are
you this be
maybe I'm with I don't know what to do
with okay
let's if everybody get their seat we'll
try to get
started St
St
yeah
okay
after we get this mic fixed up here
we'll get started but I'd like to ask
everybody we're going to adhere to three
minutes because we got three three pages
of people that want to speak tonight and
uh speak or ask
questions
so I'd ask that you be cordial please
don't no yelling out from the crowd so
that everybody can hear here uh and
we'll try to get through this thing as
quickly as
possible got it
Caleb good am I on okay may I may I ask
that that um you ask the public if if
it's repetitious and it's not really
germine to the topic that we you lend
your time because we're going to run out
and really really yeah really this is
this is a this is an opportunity for you
to ask questions so if you have a
question if you just want to come up and
just tell us how you feel about it it
would be better if you'd wait we're
going to have another we're going to
have a formal public hearing on this at
some point down the road here probably
two or three weeks away depending on how
we get along on our negotiations on the
host agreement but uh uh if you just
want to tell us that you're just opposed
to it without any question I'd ask if
you just hold that until this next
meeting but if you have questions I want
to limit you to a question uh because
you know it's going to be tough It's
hard telling how long we'll be here but
that's fine that's what we're here for
is you to ask questions so the first
person that I have here is Carrie
McCormick
Carri no yelling out from the cloud
please just hang in there
okay he hey
hey I signed I signed the third sheet
first but uh I guess I'll go first well
you were the you're on top of the list
that I have I love it I love it well I
think my first question is for Mr piler
um with climate related disasters that
are increasing expodentially number as
well as intensity every year what's your
general opinion that's causing that
uptick in natural disasters such as such
as
earthquakes um that's actually um not
related to the topic I don't have an
opinion that I can answer in any quick
quick fashion earthquakes aren't
pertinent to this with it being over a
fault line I I did mention that um one
of the potential fatal flaws that hasn't
been fully investigated yet was uh a
seismic uh or a fault line and that's
still to be looked at okay um I was
reviewing some of A's documents uh in
2019 they revised in August of
2021 uh they're having issues with uh
groundw protection standards so they're
not being the current standards they're
actually trying to I think improve their
slurry wall and some of their hydraulic
containment stuff uh in the dumps fault
formation and as we suck water out from
under the ground there being car
geography with potential mines and caves
and sorry and um you know other you know
underwater rivers and stuff of that
nature you know what makes us confident
that this Project's going to be able to
maintain you know safety standards as
well as um you know not affect the
groundwater because as we're sucking out
the groundwater there's going to be
potential issues with a a loadbearing
liner course uh geology and those sorts
of things are definitely um an issue uh
that have to be appropriately addressed
um and those evaluations uh uh have got
to be done the liner is going to have to
be able to capture all the lee8 and move
it out to the lee8 T treatment system
without getting into groundwater many of
the um the bonds that you're talking
about were built a long time ago and
didn't have liners did Bristol have a
liner didn't okay um Carrie I'm
GNA I want to hold you two questions oh
I didn't know that we we've got you
can't we can't spend all night yes sir
understood here's yeah we we could but
there are other people like of course of
course here here's something there's a
it that site is located in low density
low probability for earthquakes I don't
think there's any cars topography over
there where the landfill is located if
you'll look here here's a map of the
carbonation it's the carbonate bedrock
in
Virginia here you take this okay I sure
we c one last
question this is answered one of your
question
questions there no sink holes over in
that area here's here's where it's
located blow up that map right
there next I have R sne can I ask one
last question you already asked two
okay
listen we've got we've
got 30 some odd people here if we get
through in time we can come back
and okay if you're going to reell from
the crowd now I'm going to have you know
we get you're going to have to behave we
can't do this R come
up try this see if it helps me a little
bit here State okay
Ry got three
[Music]
minutes thank
you of the board and U I'm r snade um
I'm going to kind of jump around some
things have been covered already
tonight but um I'll tell you I I kind of
feel sorry for you board members you've
got your hands full uh this is this is
an
incredibly complicated situation I guess
for lack of a better term and I think if
I understood correctly um uh the site
just like it is whether there's a
landfill or not it poses problems
currently is that correct uh it's got
things that need to be done that's
required to be done whether there's a
landfill there or not am I correcting my
understanding on that gentleman thank
you um
so I think one of the things that
concerns me is it boils down to it boils
down to this
um it's it's a
gamble uh I think what you have gotten
into is is a game of high stakes poker
the poker game is do you want to gamble
on the land Landfield it being safe in
exchange for income that it can produce
or you want to gamble that it may not be
safe there could be a disaster and it's
not worth the risk I think it really
just comes down to that now uh I've been
trying to think of things that that
might be helpful tonight one of the
things I did uh we can learn sometimes
from things that's happened from from a
Stakes that's happened and maybe apply
them to current or future situations I
was I was excited about the project
salmon I'll call it project Salon
everybody knows what I'm talking about
up here at Southwest Virginia Community
College you had Cas County and rest
County go together for the salon project
right all right I was excited about that
actually I thought that maybe could work
well but what has happened is disaster
can happen sometimes and you all correct
me if I'm wrong but I think you kind of
had a disaster up there if I'm not
mistaken the salmon are gone due to some
type of storm or something am I right
about that Steve is that project still
on still on all right well there's a lot
of people up there be think it's it's
dead and they think the salmon got
washed away so that needs to be clear
there well that's what that's what
they're saying up around the college so
I'll stand corrected on that but but my
point is things can happen uh and I'm me
personally I'm not willing to gamble on
the Landfield being worth the risk to
people or our
environment um also I want to address
the thing that I think the Board of
Supervisors have a lot more power 30 I'm
sorry 30 seconds 30 seconds 30 seconds
okay well anyway I think the Board of
Supervisors if they want to don't have
to enter into this poost agreement in my
opinion I think that DEQ if the Board of
Supervisors don't want this will not
issue the permit they going to be you
can debate about that but we've looked
into a little bit that's my opinion
that's what I would encourage you today
thank you thank you
R David
Dingus David Dingus oh there
I've got charity Dingus after
David so the question that I have here
uh is for
TRC um what was the
justification for or reasoning to submit
such a woefully inadequate notice of
intent to the EQ on February 14th
2024 uh did this submitt a trigger some
kind of action with respect to this
project after looking
at several
intents U they're quite
lengthy this one I think was one page so
can I get a response to that
please TRC is not here sir TRC is not
here no they they work for the for the
develop
okay I I can say From deq's perspective
I do not believe it starts any TR
timelines it does not I'm not aware of
any that it starts okay
well uh in the interest of the citizens
here um we heard a lot about due
diligence and uh working to make sure
that we've done all the
research and and to have put in a lot of
work and and
research the folks here tonight have
heard a lot of I would assume I'm not
sure um we don't
know I think the citizens deserve a
little bit
more direct answers to the questions
that they're answering here asking here
and I will yield my
time
charity charity
Dingus hello thank you for the
opportunity to speak um I just have one
quick question regarding something that
was published with
WCYB says that the leaders on the
project say a company or companies who
move on the site will have to make some
infrastructure Improvement
but expect Public Assistance will be
available for those updates as
well exactly how else other than the tax
money that you already generate from us
do you expect to get that public
assistance did I need to
clarify
I
I okay you're either going to hold it
down or I'm have you remove
okay ma'am ma'am it's hard to understand
yeah understood okay um basically what
it says in the WCYB post um it says that
leaders on the project say a company or
companies who move to the s in question
MOS
3 will'll have to make some
infrastructure improvements but expect
Public
Assistance
us will be available for those updates
as well and so my question is beyond tax
revenue that we
already
contribute how else would you expect for
the public to assist on the
infrastructure updates that are
necessary for the waste management
company to come in
I I think she's talking about the the
industrial park down there where we
talked about put Wastewater Treatment
Facility in it is we we would we would
we would try to get grants and Loans low
interest loans on projects like that we
need that for the industrial park itself
that's the Ida
yeah the ID the Ida the Ida is actually
pursuing that right now okay we
apologize trying to think of the public
assistance
with NOA there is no public assistance
no right
none I'm just referencing what it says
to the leaders on this project so my
apologies thank you
yes' Dennis
fens Denise Denise Denise Denise
Denise Denise I'm sorry excuse me no
problem um
got a couple of questions basically is U
my first question is how do you think
that the I'm a realtor okay how do you
think that real estate values are going
to be affected over the um you know the
addition or the opening of you know a
landfill particularly around the area of
the landfill I can tell you that as a
realtor of 29 years I worked in the
Richmond Virginia area and uh was you
know privy to uh you know Cumberland
County and you know that you actually
spoke of and uh saw you know some real
estate changes there and some you know
declining in values um I also have you
know been here now for um growing up
here and been here now for 12 years and
have actually had personal experiences
with Buyers whenever we have given them
uh the disclosure that you know about
the Bristol landfill you know they
basically have said okay we don't want
to we don't want to be anywhere near
that so what do you think the values are
actually going to be doing for real
estate in the
area you're you're talking about in
particular over near the MOs 3 facil
well Russell County and you
know me personally I don't see much
difference between being located on
that okay you gonna love me answer Mr
chair
yeah I can't I can't see you know that
the MOs the facility is it is right now
with all that Refuge there I can't see
much difference you know it's an
environmental hazard okay that brings me
to my second question then okay this
that's my opinion I'm not speaking on
behalf of the board though okay I have
um I have seen actually you know
property values decline in areas that I
have personally been involved in and the
other thing is this you know is there
timeline basically that this host
agreement has to be signed without doing
all the due
diligence of you know these you know
these are concerns the list of concerns
that was up there is there a specific
time frame time frame or a timeline that
they has to be you know signed by
Otherwise you lose the
opportunity I don't I don't know of any
firm timeline am I right no okay all
right okay Mr chair before you leave
Miss BL you're the real estate agent
you're the expert here yeah what's your
opinion on real estate values okay so uh
based on my history in real estate of um
the timeline and being and showing
properties in both in and around
Richmond Virginia area as well as this
area uh based on you know when people
hear a mega landfill is coming okay I
still have ties you know in Cumberland
County as as well and this is what I
hear I don't want to move anywhere near
that
County so they excuse me so they don't
want to come but real estate values what
do you know of real estate values
dropping in Cumberland County or
anywhere around there okay thank yes I
do I I I can't
uh the last name is
Dickinson Harold's Valley I can't out
the first name Betty Betty okay I
recognize
you my first question would be this is
to
supervisors
um now
you pull the mic down can't quite hear
you thank you you will need of one would
assume to have an
independent
company do
the you're not going to just work off
surely you're not going to just take the
word of Nova or
rcr's
people as to what they find is there a
Fatal flaw or not you're going to need
to pay some more money to somebody
that's not intertwined because every we
look it all goes back to the same that
was
what putia okay can we see those figures
can we see their findings it's already
been released the Batista report has
been released the report has but the
findings of how they arrived at the at
their findings the
actual they figures and calculations and
that type of thing what they did is
reviewed the information that was that
was given to them by the company that
wants to put this in and and they
reviewed it right and they came found
I'm sorry but we don't we can't we have
no control over that information that
belongs to the developer so you can't
hire somebody else that's not
connected by all these layers or provide
us with the information because we can
get an engineer that's
not not related to any of it to look
at I'm just asking that's my question it
the information that you're talking
about if I understand it correctly
hasn't been generated by Nova or TRC yet
to look at they are but they generated
something for you off to base this
initial report
on our initial report was primarily
based on a site visit they did do a
fatal fatal flaw
analysis which was called potential
fatal flaws and I think I said in my
presentation that Nova has not yet
investigated
whether or not there is a seismic
problem or um underground and and those
things will have to be done afterwards
as I understand it uh Nova is waiting to
get a host agreement if they can get a
host agreement then they will move
forward to Def to do some of those other
things so that that data is not
available be looked at yet as my okay so
y'all generated a report that you really
didn't have the data to to know for sure
hold it down please
please we generated a report based on a
site visit with uh technical folks who
have been doing landmine uh operations
for a long time uh we uh we listed a lot
of things that have to be looked into
and those things are going to have we're
going to have to get those somebody's
going to have to get that data and look
at it to determine whether or not uh it
actually can be moved forward and
ideally those of us that live right
there would prefer that that data come
from somebody that doesn't have an
interest in it in any
way that's that's probably my three
minutes so I stop
[Applause]
there Dwight Dwight
Miller
my question is to each one of you board
members banan
County was raped and plundered by coold
companies and left them in
shambles they took the
money and spent it somewhere else and
left all the citizens with this mess the
same thing has happened with p Co
company and Mos 3 prep plant now what
guarantees us that this
landfill won't do the same thing and
leave a mess like that for the county to
clean up one these days ban county has
two beautiful
Parks
Council and popular Gap why don't we
have something like that and instead of
wasting all your time and energy over a
trash dump could anybody answer that for
me why can't we have something like
[Applause]
that see I have uh Raymond and Rita
Harrison well no I will I will answer
that I I I agree with him I think that
we do need more Parks and Recreation
facilities in this County I mean one of
the things I will tell you uh being on
the budget committee and everything else
you know what we're up against as far as
expenses uh we have not raised taxes and
my plan is not to have to raise taxes in
in that regard but I do agree we do need
more Parks we do need more wreck areas
but it cost a lot of money to be able to
do that and develop that unless we can
find some Grand opportunities I I do
know that there's being Parks being
developed at as we speak in additional
Community Center places as we speak so
we have worked pretty hard to do this
but I agree with him I mean we do need
places for our children to go and and
things for our families to be able to do
we had an opportunity to get a park
donated to us across from the governor's
mansion uh from the uh from the uh
Foundation that agreed to let us have
that area and we had a board uh that
really didn't want to take advantage of
that opportunity I'll be honest with you
and I think it would be a great thing
they wanted to the county to use the
governor's mansion and also the adjacent
land for a nice park in the area and
they were going to donate that to us so
it ain't that we haven't been working
toward things like that we have
is just getting the participation and
getting everybody on the same sheet of
music to be able to get that done I I
think that that will that project will
move forward I really do go ahead I'm
sorry thank you it's been a while since
I've been to a board supervisor meeting
my name's Raymond Harrison um I'm just
interested in finding out what the air
quality um situation is with putting in
the trash I live about three or four
miles directly from the new proposed
dump and I'm wondering what the EPA
thinks about the
methane there's a lot of Mines some of
them are not
even oh some of the mines are not even
open now they've been abandoned methane
and I know that carbo emits CO2 and this
is going to be a a dump right within
five miles of those two areas I'm just
wondering if the EPA is concerned
because top and the iCal map there's
only supposed to be so much pollution
that's allowed in an area and I'm just
wondering if anybody's looked to see if
this would potentially put us over the
limit for the EPA and have you had a
geomorphologist look at the the
situation down there and look and see
what needs to be done since they're more
specialists at dealing with waste and
stuff like this in geology and minds and
possible um you know C or anything that
might be under the
area that that's that's some of the
detail work that Mr Paylor talked about
it'll be done as a part of a permitted
process yeah and the as far as the
methane they're required to collect that
methane they can either burn it off or
they can put it into a gas power
generator which I think is their their
plan to do that if they if it goes
through and then generate
electricity yeah I'm just kind of
concerned one thing I'm concerned about
we've got a carbo power plant right down
the road from us which is not too far
from MCL my father worked at Moss 3 back
he actually run the Tipple back in the
80s and early 90s but uh you know I know
we've got plenty of pollution anyways we
don't need any more I'm just hoping that
whoever if you decide to do this I hope
you make it where it's not polluted
because I know Tera and myself live
right up from that place and I know I W
want see it don't want to breed
it thank you
Harrison Mr chairman if I may Mr Po uh U
help me to remember do um will this
require an air
permit uh that uh excuse me um that's a
determination that the EQ will make and
I really can't answer what they will say
can can that can that be on the front
end of a host
agreement uh host agreement
as agreements can include a lot of
things thank
[Music]
you I can't make out your first name is
Miller 686 John Sims Hill
[Applause]
Jaye hi my name is Jaye Miller um I'm 14
years old and live in Nash's Ford and
attend hker high
school I just want to know like if this
can like not happen and not be put
there because it can cause illnesses
that can affect generations to come my
generation and the next and more
and I would just like to know if it
could be stopped at
all because everyone can get very ill
off of
it I
[Applause]
guess Sherry
[Music]
pardon
me I can't answer that
question can anybody answer that
question yeah could our attorney answer
that can anything be done to stop this
yeah that's what she's
asking or or I guess really what she's
probably asking is can or are we too far
in
[Music]
or let's hold it down in audience and
let these people speak
please I I just wanted you to clarify
for her you don't have a host agreement
yet right
there hold it down in the audience
please if you want to speak going have
to come up to the
podium any more Outburst from the
audience I'll have you
[Music]
remove me hey um to for those of y'all
who couldn't hear um what the gentleman
at the table said he said we do not have
a host agreement yet and from what I
heard you say you said yes it still
could be stopped if I'm correct in
paraphrasing what what I said what I
said was we don't have a host agreement
yet and a host agreement is required by
law right so if we don't have a host
agreement then theoretically it could be
stopped or we could be sued what
well with all due respect sir anybody
anybody in the United States can sue
anybody anytime anywhere right about
that as you know as I'm sure a couple of
the board members are aware who didn't
care for the political cartoons that
were made about them and threatened
lawsuits so um again there you know
people can threat in a lawsuit but
that's not what I'm I'm here to talk
about uh I wanted to ask Mr Lester when
you did your projections of the over
$200 million over the 40
years did you base that on a 30 acre
landfill or did that inent
any expansion because I can't see at
6,000 tons a day that that that's going
to last for 40 years in 30 Acres
it the analysis that I gave was just
again it's not a part of the host
agreement it was at a dollar a ton
that's at the minimum U that's based off
of a 30 acre for for 40 years okay and
uh the analysis that you've done has
shown that at 6,000 tons per day that it
will fit into a 30 acre landfill over 40
years okay I have a difficult time
believing that but okay so uh what I
would like to then remind Miss Wallace
Mr breeding is the way that I'm
understanding this host
agreement this is a contract between
y'all and Nova or RJR whatever the you
know name is today um but this is like
selling a house you know you've got your
contract and the buyer can say yes or no
or I don't like this so what I would
like y'all to consider
is this better be the damn best wish
list this county has ever
seen okay uh a dollar a ton forget it
let's ask for three or four let's ask
for you know all of
these uh surveys that need to be done
they better be paying for it and not us
but if we're gonna if we're going to put
the Health and Welfare of everybody in
this County at risk then we better be
getting something for it okay thank
y'all very much thank
you Larry
Miller
my name is Larry Miller from John Sims
Hill
Road uh do y'all think you've had enough
evidence or information to make a vote
that would affect these people on the
host agreement in the time frame that
you said two to three
weeks do you think you have enough
information for
that
with some of the questions have been
raised maybe not you know we'll have to
discuss that after we have this I do not
this is for everybody how many of you
have think how many of y'all have
concerns that they could be an
environmental
problem how
many raise your hand how many what how
many of y'all have concerns that could
be and there could be an environmental
problem in the
future
you don't have no concerns I do there
there's nothing worse than what's there
right
now
okay they're getting paid they're
getting paid to take that out they're
selling
it for as I know they're not doing it
for
free so if they can clean that up we
don't need the
Landfield hold it down
please
Larry
Hughes Gary Gary
Gary it may
not I've got Larry Hugh but that's Larry
okay Larry
yeah
land View Drive Right lar Hughes 30
blade Hall Drive I really don't know
whether want landf or not I'm confused
that's TR something here tonight a
couple questions I'm hearing that the
existing property is being reclaimed gr
fund it and if it's be reclaimed what's
the Lal impact if we do not have it and
if we going to expand it in put
Landfield why that's a question put
maybe it's income he not the reason
but it's going to be cleaned up why we
why are we putting the landfill there
second thing is if if they get a permit
and permits revok or they file
bankruptcy who's going to be stuck with
it I know there's be a bond is a bond
going to be big enough to cover
reclaiming and clean up after the fact
that's what has been concern if you know
I know business go bankrupt on a regular
basis it's gone it gone no money that
left then we the citizens will be stuck
with it that's I'm worried about that
that's the case do we have enough
incentive to take that
risk that's all I got to
say
Bond DQ calculates the
bond at any particular they do it on an
annual basis based on what's been
deserved am I right
David that's right theq uh sets the size
the bond at the estimated cost of
completely cleaning up and closing the
site is that something that we can
negotiate in the host agreement because
you've said before that you know the
host agreement is an agreement and there
are things that we can add in
there function of I'm not sure that uh
the EQ would find itself to be bound by
um whatever we saw in the host agreement
and Dave Dave cheek you're up
next
yeah
that's that's what I'm asking yeah yeah
hey do Dave Che Mountain
Road I'm up here tonight I'm kind Mr
Hensley after listening to this for a
while and we had a little break Jonathan
up here said you know what I know more
about a simar nuclear power plant and
these guys know about their landfill I
believe I'm just really surprised at the
lack of depth of of where we're at I
mean I've looked a lot of engineering
reports built a lot of plants done a lot
of things and there's been no homework
done on this yet and I'm just curious
why this thing's been so FastTrack when
there just hasn't been the work you look
at the pedesta report talk about that
last paragraph hey first off it's not
seal but last paragraph is hey something
changes tell me I'll change my change my
recommendation that's not an engineering
there there's nothing behind it anyway
enough of that but with it I'm just you
know we we've gotten into this thing it
seems to be pushing along and I'm so
happy to see the board stop and say hey
we got to take a breath on this thing
right and U and back to the attorney I'm
glad you're negotiating the minimums
there for a while I thought you we GNA
end up giving them money if you look at
lot the host agreements uh there's a lot
of things out there that been negotiated
and uh standard law was been uh upheld
on them he talked about being sued how
many cases attorney have made it to
court in the state of Virginia on over
host agreements and how many
settled somebody in this room does I can
tell you what the number is all right
zero and
uh it down please so you know and that's
one of the things when we talked to the
EQ about the pearls of wz
on on host agreements they said this
happens you you get you get it happens
in all of them we got to stand up the
other thing is you got to look for long
term because this thing is a 40-year
plus closure looking at 70 sell one what
does that sell one mean does it mean
sell two sell three sell four before
it's over okay this could be 130 years
now just looking at it Ball parking I'm
guessing 130e project and uh that's a
long time and that's and that to put
mechanisms in place that are linked and
chained together so that because we
can't predict the future that protects
people when it goes there and the
uh Supply the vendor in this case
doesn't like it okay you know we've done
our best but if you we have to this
thing comes down we've got to protect
people other thing you're talking about
super fund uh as a back stop good luck
ask what ask BR how that worked out for
them
also look at the RS in the state of
Virginia for New Super fund okay don't
think it's there all right and um that's
uh that's about it but one thing is I'm
really proud of everybody came out today
and supported this and you know take
your time take your time make a good
decision Jim little Jun
[Applause]
please
I guess a lot of people know
this first thing is does anyone
understand that FEMA was brought in to
shut down MOS 3 has anyone even remotely
looked at that turn that microphone down
a little
bit turn it
you second thing is has de
economically in behind the where the
Landfield is going to go whose property
is that going to
protect in the years to
come who's who's going to take care of
that property in behind where the
Landfield is if it gets down to the
Landfield site that Dam breaks up above
it they own they own
1,80 acres in landfill is down yes but
if if the upper side of that damn breaks
where's it going to go right down the
Landfield
right it's going to it's going to R and
go down to the Landfield and EPA is
going to be involved and then you're
shut down who's going to pay for the
cleanup taxpayers correct or the county
how well I mean this is a private
project
and the county don't have any ties to
the responsibility the bond actually is
mechanism to cover any things like that
am I correct in regards to
that excuse me I'm sorry he was asking a
question ask it again there the the bond
um would be designed um to also deal
with
cleanups and closure yeah he was talking
about like what the respons possbility
of the county would be if he had a if
there was a major break or Dam break or
something like that would be would the
county be on the
hood uh the the county would um I I
would expect would not be on the hook
and the state would step in if the bond
was insufficient and and don't forget is
it is it the taxpayers money going to be
used to fit that Bond no
no
Mr chairman there's also the County's
insisted from the developer that there
be an environmental insurance policy and
umbrella insurance policy on top of that
so the bond is a DEQ requirement the
environmental
insurance would and the umbrella
insurance would be
accounting would be above and beyond
what DEQ
requir thir third question this be
you serve on the board Lan serves on the
board right now and you all have do you
all have outside person to come in and
vote with you all on these
this project like a outside
person say that again like a citizen
should come in and sit in with you all
on these
meetings yeah
like Tera was talking about advisory no
can we input that in as an Junction to
do that you got 30 seconds that's that
was my last question can we add an
advisory committee meeting tonight pick
out get seven people from the audience
to sit in on these meetings with you
all that's just just my
question I know it 30 seconds is over so
well yeah your time is up but we're not
required to do that because it's a
private Landfield I if it were a
Landfield Solid Waste or is it going to
be the other room your time is up S I
think what they're concerned about Steve
is just the the transparency issue and
the fact that you know they feel like
you know that they've not had any
representation as far as that goes and I
mean it's that's all I think all he all
you were trying to say correct is that
yeah because even though it is not
required you know it yeah I mean we're
if we're going to meet and exceed all
the other regulations Chad
Terry
yeah that
P
12 hello
um I just want to ask a question and
it's on our list of questions that we
should maybe ask and I didn't hear
anybody ask it yet are the grant
providers that have already provided
grants to you guys the Tobacco
Commission and amler are they aware of
uh that their grants are being used to
in any form of fashion towards this
landfill I
don't I don't know any grants the the
Tobacco Commission didn't Grant y'all
any
money is that the money they gave for
the
bridge the gr money that went for
towards the Tobacco Commission and the
am went towards the development of the
Ida property and that's that Golden Pond
that you're talking that is correct your
Golden Goose yes
yeah well another question I have is
what kind of what incentives do you guys
have to put this in and will you be
receiving any kind of stiens any kind of
support to your candidacies or anything
like that absolutely not nothing like
that at all no okay so you're doing this
out of the goodness of your heart for
the county though right y'all are here
working for the county doing this for us
exactly okay well then answer answer a
few questions because folks aren't as
good at talking as you guys are you know
we're not we don't do this for a living
we don't come out and talk and just and
then try to say what people want to hear
most of the time we really just want
answers and we really want to be
represented I don't want my drinking
water like I said I live two miles away
from there I don't want to have to have
Town water I don't want to have to to
worry about drinking my water through a
through a lifw or getting a pure water
fire for the house there's no need and
and if the fault line there everything's
going to leech right straight into the
Clinch River which is protected and you
do not understand like like the
implication this if you don't think
there's going to be implications to it
you got another com take my
time Cara
couch
hi okay so my question is kind of a
followup to miss Betsy's question um she
asked what I was asking wanting to ask
um there seems to be kind of a lack of
information a lack of details in the
original site analysis that was done by
a company that is owned by the
developers so there I just want to
clarify there are no current plans for
any independent site analysis before
during or after at this
point
Mr chair that side analysis would be
required as a part of uh any permit
application that uh the EQ receives okay
and that was my next question is is that
part of the DEQ permitting
part the site analysis would um be done
by um by a contractor to
um to the company um as it stands right
now um you know uh our contract uh is to
um uh is to
review uh some of uh those data so there
the county certainly has the option to
have uh uh independent uh uh review of
that side analysis in addition to
whatever DEQ does with
it okay so would that be like an option
that you guys would be interested in an
independent study to make sure that the
site the original site analysis was
correct that be enough okay and then my
second question is pretty pretty quick
and simple um if you were going to have
to amend the ordinance to allow that
specific landfill just due to the
wording could you not amend the
ordinance to ban private landfills in
this
[Applause]
County
well it would seem that
the current way the solid waste
management plan is that site wouldn't be
usable for a landfill my
understanding I work for the chairman
Amy if you want if you want to ask
questions you like to come up
here okay I wel so I'm done thank you
thank you
sah Wen Sarah
willing she's
gone who are
you I wasn't on the list but if it's all
right with you I'd like to take that
person's place
she had three minutes go ahead you're
thank you it seems to me in intending
these meetings that some of the board
members need to be reminded what's
really taking place here it's the
bosses that are showing up to let the
employees know how
dis how
disappointed and that's a word that it's
putting it lightly we are
we are demanding that you do something
their hard earn money goes into an
account that money goes into your
account to safeguard the people of this
country to to this County to do the best
thing for the people of this
County his answer to her comment was not
good
enough if you can amend the language in
the existing
ordinance you can add language that will
totally ban a private landfill in the
county and I would encourage I know that
any board down please any board member
can make a motion to do that and I would
encourage you all to have the courage of
the men who took over that preparation
plan
in
1989 and make a motion to put language
into that ordinance that would ban
private landfills in Russell County are
any one of you board members do you have
the courage to do that you could do that
this is an official
meeting okay you all have your answer
they don't they don't they don't care
about what you all say
I think we have to have a public hearing
to do that is that
correct but I mean is it is it supposed
to be specific to that yes you can make
a motion at any meeting that you
choose end of the end of the mic please
it's hard to hear some with crowd and
everything
else can we publicize that
hearing does somebody need need to make
a motion right now to have another
hearing to change the language we're
going to discuss this first and we'll
talk about having a second hearing we're
we're going to have a second courage of
the board members is just
astounding the this Landfield is going
to have consequences for years to come I
understand Mr Lester I understand his
motivation I understand that we're going
to have to pay more for land to take
this trash somewhere over over the next
few years but this is not the
answer if if this land is contaminated
and hazardous now I'm not sure who the
land owner is they have they they need
to take care of it put the landfill
there is not going to take care of that
is it I need your address please Raven
Virginia phone number silence is
[Applause]
deafening
to the point of the lady the site is not
permittable right now under our Solid
Waste plan period as it stands currently
we have to vote change the solid waste
plan to have a
landfill we're not talking about
changing an ordinance we're talking
about adding a proper changing a
property from an industrial site to a
landfill or a solid way site that has to
be voted on by this board that has to
happen before DEQ will present a permit
that's my understanding is that not
correct
yes yes don't have to vote it down it's
already
there it's already there so hold it down
I don't know if that has to go through a
a public hearing and all that but that's
my understanding if I'm wrong correct me
as it stands
currently that that
location is not permittable under the
solid waste management plan that we
currently have and we would have to
change that to do it that's correct
correct yes you'd have to do that as
well as have a host okay does it require
a public hearing to change a solid waste
management
plan
does that does that require public
hearing
no Mr chair may I ask ma'am may I ask
something um was that overturned in the
past I I think that's a question that
needs to be looked into as I understand
I think I saw a um um an article back in
the 60s where uh this board did some uh
prohibition like that and I'm not I
don't believe that's still in place so
uh I think some legal research needs to
be G done into that before you would
know what your authorities
are Josh
Burgess Josh burus 1857 Arch Pro we've
missed one great detail here tonight
it's to uh be be courteous if everybody
showed up so thank you crowd everybody
showed up and came out thank
you and thank you
umwa and thank our police for keeping us
safe and I want to thank all the boards
for keeping our environment clean
appreciate
you so and that's the truth yes we live
in a clean safe environment here and we
we need to protect it
but one thing I stated at the last
meeting why does Josh keep showing up
why is he here the first people that I
called were the very people that were
right to permit for this
Landfield and I asked them for guidance
on what to do they told me you and your
community needs to come together and
show support to this board and support
them in voting no to the Landfield if
they vote no we cannot write a permit
for this slam pill and that came from
the people that were right to permit the
DEQ and another thing I want to speak
about is uh Lonzo
mentioned there's um The Refuge
pile you've got 118 million tons of coal
Refuge is that
right
okay and you're going to situate a 3 5
acre landfill there roundabout
correct 30 Acres 30 AC okay so are these
two things going to coexist at the same
location because I felt it's kind of
been a scare tactic to tell us how
poisonous this site already is when it's
been there since 1958 and me personally
have never heard a complaint about this
side ever all I've heard is we're proud
of our miners down can't hear it was
we're proud of
minors
and and I respect that so how is this
site so toxic that we've never heard a
complaint about it and is Russell County
Reclamation taking this back to virgin
ground that that I can't answer for no
okay so you're saying if we get the
landfill they're going to clean up all
the refuges okay if all that is cleaned
up
the spot for the lamp fill will not
exist anymore the impression will not
exist if you clean all that up so what
I'm saying you're W to develop this set
a landfill in this impression that
you're saying we have to remove all this
toxic waste but if we remove that toxic
waste there'll be no sight for the
landfill the 30 acre side as as you seen
on on the video and as you see here the
picture that is that is a small portion
of that 1250 acres by regulation they
cannot put a liner or develop a landfill
unless it's at Ground base the original
soil at the elevation that it was
at that it has to be clean and excavated
out now the second component of what
they were doing was lightweight
aggregate so this will be working in
conjunction with those operations
okay I understand that so is the site
going to be taken to vir virgin ground
to take care of all the pollutants that
are already there that you claim or
there where that cell one has to be no
I'm talking about the site as a whole
1200 Acres I can't I can't answer that
so we're still going to have what you
will call as a polluted site plus a
landfill if this does not go back to
virgin ground I I think their long range
plans are to try to recover all that
cold Refuge take it out and to turn all
the rock into the light I get that but
if you remove all that Refuge where is
your landfill site and
understand where they removed that this
thing will expand and I will tell y'all
that the elevation that this leld will
gain will be 500 ft in elevation it will
be a 50 story building setting over
there that that is how these things are
done and
also you know is this a make or break
situation for the county as far as
funding are we going bankrupt if we
don't vote Yes for this and but it's not
us people we are not going to be
bankrupt it is the way that our funds
have been handled in the past that got
us to this
position and this cannot be our fin this
cannot be our final future so thank
y'all very much and I appreciate
everybody for coming out and supporting
this thank you thank y'all Amy
Amy Branson Castlewood with respect to
the potia report when the Board of
Supervisors interviewed potia for this
project did potia inform you of the
Court judgments against them in West
Virginia for negligence fraud and
Malice I wasn't on the
board
okay um so I guess we didn't know um
with respect to the patista report did
patista hire dra and Aiden to perform a
fatal fall flaw screening analysis as
stated on page one or did patista
receive the Fatal flaw screening
analysis from Russell County Reclamation
as stated on page
two we received it if it says that on
page one that's incorrect okay okay so
that came from Russell County
Reclamation the uh the Draper Aiden
report was uh was um Russ was uh Nova's
uh contract okay that's all I have thank
you okay Gary Hughes you're up
now I'm sorry I got it right this
PR Virginia
24649 991
2201 uh who ended up with the $2
million Bond on the site to reclaim
it what I don't understand what 2
million Bond they had a $2 million
Bond now the the site had M site the M
site had a $2 million Bond I'd say it
still has that Bond
No does not I don't know did it go to
the new Landfield owner I mean the new
property
own do you have any
idea are you talking about the bond or
the grant it was a bond it's a bond
posted by prob
clinch field piston
somebody you have to have that before
you can operate tonight yeah so where
where' it go I understood they had did
they replace that B I know they do have
Bond yeah they do they have a
bond Bond RCR has a bond on proper all
right I don't know all the arrangements
when yeah all right uh is there any
truth that there is three vessels been
found on the site three what three
vessels containers that has been found
on the site with
sludge or something like that
in I have no knowledge of that at all
okay else
uh you're talking about all these rare
and metals and things that can be
reclaimed from this
site uh the Landfield is not going to be
holding trash from 60 years ago it is
going to be holding trash from today and
today's trash is highly
toxic household garbage is highly toxic
lithium batteries lead Mercury anything
that you could think of is in household
garbage thank you thank you
sir Brandy
Harley um so y'all have said 35 Acres of
landfill Clyde Stacy told us at the last
public hearing that there could be up to
100 acres of potential landfill and the
pesta study looked at 200 acre 280 Acres
of landfill I think that's wild anyway
now I have my two questions Mr Paylor
how many landfills did you decline while
DEQ while you were DEQ director and did
you inform the board of this
m I'm afraid I don't remember that
number one way or the other do you do
you know what the number is it's zero
thank you okay say that the last
landfill application that was uh uh that
was even filed other than Cumberland
which is underway was in 2007 so it's
zero of a very small number thank you
and U this is a question for Gentry lock
is there any legal reason the host
agreement has to come before the flaws
at this site are identified and
addressed particularly to the safety and
environmental issues I'm sorry slow down
and say that again you're fine um it is
late I get it um so um is there any
legal reason the host agreement has to
come before the flaws at this site are
identified and addressed no thank you in
solidarity being
price uh Ben price 510 Dyan Street Cedar
Bluff uh Mr Lester will you please pull
up your presentation slide 3435 please
uh to the three new members on the I
really appreciate you all um I was kind
of you know curious how it would be but
y'all have done an excellent job at uh
you know having the initiative to ask
the questions and the courage to ask the
questions that we've been asking since
day one
um let's be crystal clear about this uh
Mr Lester Mr breeding I got slide yes
that's correct yeah um so well we can do
this now uh please explain to me again
your comparison between slide 34
slide 35 that you said
previously are you talking to me yes sir
I'm sorry
hang this is the original piston uh the
MOs 3 site that has been cleaned up that
was done under the grants specifically
compared to that yeah the next slide
this next slide this is on by the Ida
this was agreement between the Ida and
RCR that was that had cleaned it side up
and was donated land afterwards for the
clean up that was part of the agreement
okay so what in comparison though that
that picture right there versus that
picture not the same place you're want
to know where being you're W to know
where it's located no I'm W to know
whenever he first did his presentation I
thought that he was trying to say that
that this was before and this was after
this was
this okay I just wanted that on the
record thank you very much rest all
right so M this is my time now Mr Lester
so the environmental hazard uh being
over there right now and Mr bre the
environmental hazard over there right
now is not what the current mind land
use is is not our problem it is not our
problem you can make it our problem if
you allow this to go through and so I
want to know in what world you're living
in in 2 where this is our problem if you
all do not act what is the current post
mine land use of the pictures you put up
there Mr Lester do you
know right the post mine land use for
allation that is correct what is the
post mine land use of it though there's
a postm land use what is it that is
correct as far as the post they were
looking at solar panels yeah that's not
the postm land use the postm land
that that's fine I don't want to waste
any more of my time uh where did the
money for the money that was where did
the money for the the poesta potia
report uh that was paid the $507,000
where did that money come
from as far as far as the money right
now is being paid by us no where did
that money come from that came from the
county where did that money come from it
came from the County General ledgers
okay thank
you it's not time I've got a time right
here it's it's uh has been reimbursed
yet it
is okay your
time okay my I mean I've got a clock
right here Steve um maybe you didn't
reset yours stopwatch you stepped up
okay so is is there going to be an
answer to that last qu I didn't I
thought I was timed on my time not I
didn't know I was timed on your answers
no you're hit three minutes
okay well Mr chairman you called this
landfill a God send will you either
recant and apologize for that statement
no I will not okay so perhaps you will
double down on that statement no I will
not you're you're
through Rand Dan
[Applause]
CH Mr
cheek C he k
he's already oh okay well he on here
twice
[Applause]
Jennifer Jennifer tumble I live in sink
holes I don't know where y'all live but
I live right next to MOS three and
there's a bunch of sink calls on my
property
anyway I'm I feel kind of Vindicated I'm
going to be honest that there is a host
agreement required and that that
ordinance does exist that we need to
change well he said ordinance y'all say
plan I don't know here's one thing we've
heard a lot about lawsuits if we don't
do this they're going to take us to
court you know we hear that a lot of
course anybody can sue anybody but
here's the thing that I haven't heard
how do we make them accountable for
these terms that we put in this toast
agreement all right you it's a contract
contracts can be broken right we'd have
to take them to court for that is that
correct I mean to make them abide by the
terms basically they can do whatever
they want within reason well DQ
not so say they don't pay you your money
yeah you would have to take them to
court right to get that money
so basically they can go in there and
just decide not to pay us and then we
would have to take them to court which
they can hold up for years versus them
taking us to court for saying no to a
host agreement so either way it sounds
like we're going to end up in court I
mean because these people come in and
they do whatever they want Green Ridge
actually used us as the reason for
getting
their landfill that's part of the reason
they want a landfill is because because
their need is because we we are supposed
to take our ways to them eventually and
the golden pad I mean didn't I know
Lonzo said this coold heats up but
didn't we bury that stuff there or
didn't we bury those thickening tanks
there I mean is that not already buried
on site is that going to heat up I mean
that was all scrap taken out so those
tanks aren't buried on
site the thickening
tanks tanks yeah there's in that picture
the tanks were taken out they had a
salvage company come in and take all
that all the metal the Tipple and all
that well the geology report actually
says differently they said they found
sludge and when they
dug so basically one thing I would like
to add is that in this host agreement
we've learned that we can do more we can
be more stringent and a lot of host
agreements I've read have what's called
Good Neighbor programs in them and they
actually require that you pay well not
you guys but it would the developer
would have to pay money to uh tourism to
scholarships and frankly I think the
towns need to be in that above and
beyond what the county gets 30 uh you
know why would we not pay these towns
that are going to be affected by this
especially Cleveland why would we not
pay them and I know we've been told okay
it could be in budget but that's what
you guys have to make a decision on and
this is a contract right so why couldn't
it be in there I don't know I'm still a
no for this we have heard nothing about
odor we haven't heard much about
insurance and can this be put to a
referendum why can the people not vote
on
[Applause]
[Music]
this James
Gibbs Gibbs yes
sir
my my name is James Gibbs I'm the
international vice president for
thewa that site that you're talking
about to me is a historic
site uh in ' 89 and 90 we had that
strike we had the worst labor strike uh
in this country really in a sense we
lost 40 people retirees fighting for
their Healthcare and pension and now
you're talking about putting a trash
dump and doing away with our history
labor history you know we had this thing
back in the fall where people were
trying to do away with black history and
labor history and you know who I'm
talking about but we don't feel like
neither one of them ought to go and I'll
tell you up front this place is a
historic site you got a big enough place
here you could put a museum or anything
that would benefit this count this
County and this County stood with us and
that's strike and we going to stand with
you of I want you to
know W stop
now the question is not being asked it's
been asked two or three times but
nobody's ever answered piston coold
company in clinch Co company owned this
property why didn't they reclaim this
property when they sold whatever whoever
they sell to and why would any buyer buy
this and not let them reclaim it through
the mind recation now that don't make
sense to me now y'all can look at it and
say anything you want they ought to
reclaim this property to its natural
form and they did not do that
[Laughter]
now you can give me three minutes and
you take away whatever you want to take
away but what I'm trying to say is my
duty is to protect my members and I got
a lot of them here and and and I and
these folks and their families now I
can't speak with it just Union no other
way we need to tell the people the truth
who brought this property and why would
you buy property and not knowing that
all this stuff need to be Tak if this if
I had all this toxic property why did
they buy this property and then tell
somebody else they got to fix it they
needed to fix it before they sold it and
if they didn't why ain't Pistons been
brought up here tonight why have pistons
not been brought up here tonight at
clinchfield because you know they right
behind all this stuff as far your grants
and everything they're trying to do away
with labor history and we ain't going to
let that happen thank
[Applause]
you Tammy Garrett
Tammy
Garrett I'm Tammy Garrett I'm from leban
first I want to correct something that
uh was stated inappropriately well it
was wrong um that area is in compliance
currently it has not been deemed an
environmental hazard by any agency it's
not toxic Russell County doesn't own it
shouldn't be our problem the same refu
area is at McLure River prep plant
currently and it is in compliance so
that area is in compliance with all
environmental um laws second of all um
if this site is going to be 30 acres and
that's all uh can we not put it in the
host agreement that it's going to remain
at 30 Acres if 30 Acres last us 50 years
maybe we could renegotiate the host uh
hostage I mean post agreement at that
time because it's going to hold it's
going to take up 6,000 tons a day so
that 30 Acres ought to last us a good
while and we all know that landfills
modern landfills are built sale by sale
so I think it's a little bit misleading
to say it's only going to be 30 Acres
when we know that 30 acres is one sale
and then they're going to ask to make it
more
and third um this Landfield does have a
fatal flaw and the Fatal flaw is there
is an abandoned mine cheny Creek deep
mine runs extensively and laterally
underneath this proposed
Landfield it's it goes in all directions
including under the MOs three area if
the landfill is built and it will take
years to get it built and permeated
because of all the issues that pesta has
identified with the site what's going to
happen is at some point in time it's
going to be subjected to subsidence or
Sinking and that is going to be because
of the weight of the tons of the
landfill garbage and when that land
shifts the landfill liner will be
compromised and the contents of the
landfill are going to crush the leachate
the water and the gas monitoring pipes
underneath it and then there's going to
be no way to repair those pipes because
there's going to be tons of garbage
sitting on top of it so what we going to
do then the leachate will spill out into
the abandoned underground mine that's
all I got to say the Board of
Supervisors has the power to vote no on
this
monstrosity that will impact our future
in westle County Josh Miller Josh
[Applause]
Miller Josh Miller 505 Russell Road
Northwest Department J Virginia Mr
chairman ladies and gentlemen of the
board I look at this side as a
historical side as well both my grandpa
aswa members I moved over to Washington
County that's where currently reside to
make me and my wife a Better Living I
hate I had to leave Russell County but I
left Russell County to Make a Better
Living and you can bet your high end
that I'm not going to move back if
there's a landfill uh I just I don't
understand how that would benefit us I
live in Abington and I can tell anybody
here come to my apartment I'll let you
smell it sometime come to my apartment
I'll let you smell it you can smell it
in Abington I'm 13 miles as a crow flies
from this from this Landfield down
Bristol it's a disaster and honey if I'm
trying to sell you a car and it's got a
bunch of problems I'm want to tell you
oh we'll review all that after you give
me your
agreement I'm not going to tell you my
car that motor's going to blow up
tomorrow I'm gonna say honey come up
here and let's buy this car and as soon
as I got your signature I got you and
don't you think that these big
corporations won't do that to us people
they have manipulated us Mountain folk
for a long time we look down upon we
don't use big words we don't use fancy
talk but honey we ain't stupid
and I appreciate all the board members
appreciate all y'all with good questions
ter I really want to compliment you I
really appreciate you I think you done a
good job and you know I I try to be
respectful but I just I just want you to
think about the health impacts that this
place is going to have what do you we
don't know what they don't even know the
impacts of the Bristol Landfield what do
you think's going to happen up here when
something goes wrong who's going to foot
that bill I'll tell you who foots it us
just like your mind workers they try to
take their Healthcare rights I'm my Papa
he still fights this day over his health
care and you think they're going to turn
around do something for US citizens when
it injures us no honey they're going to
stick it on your T and tell you to deal
with it thank you that's all I
got Tim
Lewinsky thank you Mr chairman members
of the board thank you for having this
meeting my name is Tim swinsky I uh work
at the Sierra Club Virginia ch we the
country's oldest largest environmental
organization I was asked here to speak
about the consequences of landfills now
there's been a lot of over complicated
information thrown at this community
today so let's simplify things really
quickly let's just get down to Brass tax
every single landfill smells doesn't
matter what kind of deodorizer you put
it doesn't matter what kind of tools you
put in they smell and that smell is not
just bad for the community it's a health
hazard because it contains chemicals
that are toxic and the people who get
sick the most of of these are children
full stop if you have asthma problems in
this County already they will get worse
every single every single smell that
comes off of that is flammable fires
from landfills account for almost 10,000
fires uncontrolled by landfills every
single year this is something that is
very very much looking at a possibility
happening with this landfill every
landfill leaks 100% of them leaks
doesn't matter if you put in liner they
will leak eventually let's just call
this what is you can put bells and
whistles on it but pollution is
pollution no matter what you call it
it's not an industrial site it's a
pollution site and now this is site is
it's not just that but it says clearly
that the community doesn't want it it's
clear that you're trying to erase
history of people who were the lifeblood
of this County for so many years in the
coal mining industry it's clear that
this that this County deserves better
now am I supposed to ask a question
given all of the consequences that could
and will happen not a matter of if but a
matter of when can you guarantee with
100% % certainty that this will not
impact People's Health that this will
not impact people's water that this will
not change the character of a place
people call home yes or
no sorry just someone want to speak into
a
microphone I mean I can't guarantee it
thank you I can't guarantee it nobody
can
guarantee Daryl and Tina
Brown what was the name Daryl and Tina
Brown Daryl and Tina
Brown they
leave James
rasy is that Daryl
okay you're not darl Tina Brown
it's Ed
young Ed young 1919 River Mountain
Road I'd like to uh I want to say I
appreciate everybody coming out here
tonight this means a lot to a lot of
people you wouldn't be here if it didn't
mean a lot to you and I really
appreciate you um there's there's been a
Mis misconception I want to I want to
personally bring this up uh about these
uh political cartoons that drawn a lot
of people know I'm an artist I've lived
in Russell County most all my life a lot
of you have seen my artwork I am not
Eddie poe just so everybody
knows I I already sent a message to
Steve so that he knows that I'm not
believe and and uh I just wanted to to
put that out there whoever puts the
power points together needs to not use
red because we can't see what the
answers are in Red so I just need to
make make you aware of that whoever's
putting those together I appreciate you
but don't use red don't use blue you can
use white we can read white uh thank you
for thewa for being here tonight I'm a
third actually I'm a fourth generation
in the coal mines and uh I really
appreciate these guys and their families
for being here tonight thank you so much
thank you
board James
rasnik
James I'll keep brief is there a like I
said you said there's no timeline why
exactly are you trying to get a vote for
a host agreement when you haven't even
eliminated fatal
flaws to you Mr you seem to push this as
as is the perception we we've been
trying to get the host host
agreement yeah why would you negotiate a
host agreement knowing that there are
potential fatal flaws the Fatal flaws
are part of the permitting process those
those detailed stud why would you sign
off on because they can't do the permit
until you have the host agree yeah why
if why not eliminate those fatal flaws
if this is going to come to fruition why
not have that in place first you have to
identify those through a lot of detailed
study are very expensive yid for that
which is no no no no we didn't yeah the
the petista report identified potential
fatal flaws why you're talking about
identifying we identified fatal flaws to
address I I guess what you're saying is
he identified some additional things
that need further study yes why would
you put to vote a host agreement let me
finish why would you put to vote a host
agreement
knowing that there are potential flaws
we
don't we don't know that they are he's
just saying it's a possibility and they
need to be studied further okay then why
are you part the permitting process okay
why does this need to come to a
vote submit a permit until you have
theost that doesn't make a you're
you're you're we in here yeah yeah
you're looping that's what I'm saying
why are you trying to go ahead and have
this host
knowing that they identified potential
flaws why would you vote on that in
goodal potential potential yes why is
that not explored if you doing your due
diligence to protect this his resel
County you wouldn't make them
accountable have them finish that first
if they're if they're true fatal flaws
they'll be the permitting process will
identify them and it will turn them down
but if you're doing the due diligence
that is that is due diligence no due d
that
accountable make them prove that is a
perable
site doesn't cost any AC that's the
accus job no it should be the Nova
Corporation to
prove that they'll have to prove the DEQ
that is
per why why can't we why are you pushing
for I'm sorry I don't mean to
interrupt and I'm sorry Mr chair but
we're going round and round on this
thing we should we should really look at
this
stringently and have several things on
the front end of our host agreement if
we're going to move forward the host
agreement needs to be stringent and
those questions that pesta has asked
need to be answered before we go one
step further my opinion thank you that's
it Brandon Moore
had a big old speech but I'm going to
wing it um first off this isn't anything
new you go you look online you see Co
Barons and you see uh landfill Barons
coming into these areas where they see a
small population of these redneck
hillbillies and they think we're too
uneducated to be able to fight back well
y'all are wrong on that right so you
come in here tonight and I noticed uh
one of the things was You' mentioned
6,000 tons a day but then earlier
tonight you said that's just a uh it's
just a number that it could change so
you could go up to 15,000 tons a day you
go up to 20,000 tons a day there's
nothing saying that 6,000 tons is what
it's going to
be you sit there and you say that it's
going to be 30 Acres you don't buy 1
1250 acres of land that only put 30
Acres of it as a
landfill you sit there and you you go
round and round on us and you Mumble and
you try to take as much time away from
us as talking the beginning of this but
you were sitting up there with these
harsh Metals that's supposedly pollutant
as it is now every one of those is in a
landfill you also have Vinyl chloride in
a landfill if you remember not long ago
a train derail in Ohio and released viny
chloride that made national news and
world news how long is it before Russell
County makes world
news so in closing all I want to say is
we are the sons and daughters of these
mountains and if you all thought you
were going to come here and rape our
County and our people you got another
thing
[Applause]
coming Jared Jared
[Applause]
ring
I'm going to ask quite a few questions
I've spent a lot of time with this we
don't have immediate answers for them
I'll just move on um first of all what
is the name of the financial model that
was used to evaluate uh the profits we
might get from this landfill that's a
question for you Mr
Lester on the landfill model that we
made as host agreements it was taken
what is the name of that financial model
it it's it's one that we developed okay
so you're not following any known
Financial framework we're taking what is
what Tage is internal savings
interesting and does that take into
account any risk profiles or the
devaluation revenue we might lose from
lack of Tourism or property taxes from
residents like myself that might move
out of the county it does not take that
risk in consideration it does have the
CPI indexes in it on the annual basis as
model and increasing cost but not those
not those factors okay so in shorter
terms would you agree that that is a
best case scenario with none of the
costs that could be associated with this
that's if you remember at the first of
my conversations I said this is at the
minimum best most conservative estim
until we come to an agreement with a
real number and host agreement okay
thank you uh another question for you Mr
Lester how many of those elements are in
Flash I love them okay thank
you uh with that in mind can we all
agree that covering this
landfill uh should not be something that
is done with flyash if it goes forward
and that should be established in the
host agreement if this is supposedly so
hazardous if we recycle fly ashes a
cover material that will put us back in
the same
boat um another question I have since
we're so afraid of litigation from these
people is why we getting into bed with
somebody that we're that worried is
going to sue
[Music]
us
also another point is Russell County
Reclamation and Nova are different
companies why are we treating them
interchangeably which one of them owns
the land do they have the possessory
right to actually sue us if it's Russell
County Reclamation that owns it and not
Nova because if we don't have an answer
to that we should if we're going to tell
litigation is a reason to be Ram roding
this landfill through to spot
overwhelming public
opposition
additionally what is the lifespan of one
of these landfill
liners because my research on it in
geomembranes uh.com has shown that
they're only 30 to 40 years and if
there's Co fines or seepage from Co
fines that have been removed what
happens when that liner finally fails
and it will because they have a lifespan
and it gets down there in those hot
spots with those chemicals cadmium
selenium whatever and it mixes with the
leachate that has been brewing whatever
hasn't drained off and it's not all
going to drain because some of it will
be suspended in the garbage what happens
when that liner reaches the end of its
lifespan and that mixes with the soil
the groundwater ends up in dumps
Creek is is there an action plan for
cleaning that up because it will happen
it's an inevitability these things have
a
lifespan would that be a question
for okay moving on no hold on just a
minute please hold on did you get the
question Mr Taylor I got the question uh
I am not aware of what their lifespan is
and I'm writing that question down right
now okay that that brings up another
question I can answer I can say that in
one of the reports maybe you gave it to
us it was like 1,39 pages I read down
through it where they evaluated there
were three different gentlemen did
evaluations on Landfield liners the hdp
liner they found had a a lifespan well
over 200
years I can show you the document it's
right there I have not found that in my
research through the epa's documentation
Mr breeding but if you'd like to share
that document
appre um moving on these typically use
what's called a geomembrane and that is
essentially compacted clay if there are
existing hot spots in the soil anybody
that's ever worked with Ceramics can
tell you what happens to Clay under heat
could those hotpots predispose this to
failing
[Applause]
prematurely and additionally I'm going
to use the rest of my time to just run
through some things that should in the
host agreement I've already touched on
there needs to be an action plan in
place with a fund established by the
direct or by the developer to protect
species I think frankly that there
should be a stoen issue to residents
living nearby because they take
significant health risks living near
that landfill there is overwhelming
medical evidence that states the risks
of living near a landfill and I think
that people in a 10 m radius of this
should receive a stop directly from the
developer a percentage of their profits
that should be in the host
agreement there should also be
contingencies in the host agreement for
what happens if we come under Federal
scrutiny for the notable endangered
species near this site should they begin
to be adversely affected by this
landfill and what will we do there
should be an action plan if we start
noticing declining numbers of these
species you can check the Department of
Wildlife Resources uh clinch Mountain
district for the the incredible number
of endangered species I've also provided
each board member with a packet that
details some of those
species um in addition I would also like
to request that the landfill liaison
have uh verbage around it in the host
agreement that prevents that relate that
liaison from being related in any way to
any member of this board or the
developers uh I also think that we
should expressly demand a percentage of
the profits from any off gassing of this
site if they capture the methane and try
to sell it even if they don't plan on
doing that initially that should be in
the host agreement since we're doing
this for
money uh additionally I believe that we
should exceed the minimum state
coverage uh for the bond because Bristol
has greatly exceeded the bond I
understand this is not Bristol but we
need to exceed that Bond considerably
because if the bond is exceeded and
deq's money is exceeded it will devolve
back on us
times here's a here's
a
this I think that's you
gave
conclusions I went through all I could
get through it I've got a copy L right
here I will read through I
[Applause]
promise thank you umwa in
solidarity choosing fear of litigation
the of the citizens of this
[Applause]
County Miss
Boyd all we
do
Bo 114 vir cour Lebanon first of all I
would thank you Mr Kaiser for answering
and stand up for me for two years I've
been talking to Town Council uh and they
don't talk to me just ignore me so even
answer that you can't help that you can
do nothing it's an answer so thank you
so
much I've been talking to Mr ler and Mr
Breen and neither of them answered to me
and I wasn't asking you to be Godfather
to my children you you are representing
me I vote for you and Mr Lester do you
remember last year when I talk with you
you told me that if Town led me to have
my manufacturer home
in my property it will open Pandora box
so Manufacture home 1200 square foot
it's open Pandora box but
Landfield very dangerous for All County
and County neighbor with us it's not
Pandora box we can let them have
it and uh I would like to invite you
all on Monday morning we schedule a man
who come move my manufacturer home of my
property my real estate real property
from Real
Estate so I invite you to to see to
watch how the local government can make
you move a
man's home for no
reason that just only one reason because
they have two neighbors the town manager
and the town council member next to me
so we please them so
maybe Board of supervisor can
ask Town Council to help how to operate
how to change Town ordinance like they
done on us they changed down ordinance
two months after we brought mobile home
so maybe it's possible for County to
change your
ordinance you vot what
2017 right so it's
possible and
uh I want thank
everybody thank you Russell County
people it's it's good to see everybody
together stand
together and uh I ask Board of
Supervisors please do not destroy the
future of our children and grandchildren
with this dangerous landfill thank you
John
little Board of Supervisors uh ladies
and gentlemen my name is John little my
brother in spirit David ding Dingus
asked me to speak on behalf for the fine
citizens of Russell County a little
about
myself I've worked over 12 years for a
multi-billion dollar Corporation during
much of that time I served as an elected
union
representative I've stood toe-to-toe
with corporate Giants and did not back
down I've Sav jobs help get Associates
rehired after dismissal and have
disciplines removed our current local
area vice president hand alone will tell
you I saved her job my point is that I'm
used to standing up and I'm standing up
tonight
I've spoke with CWA local 2204 president
Chuck Simpson and have the support of
our local from Rono to basically here
the communications workers of America
have the most active pack of any Union
in our
country I dare say we are
powerful I'm working to get the support
full support of the CWA the Western
labor Federation and I've seent an email
to the president of the Virginia aflcio
M kuss ma asking for support I had the
pleasure of meeting and lobbying for
workers rights with Mr Chris Lester in
our Commonwealth's
Capital he's a retiree of the Executive
Board of the state aflcio he was the
local union president he was a local
union president during the pittson
strike and he's still active in this
fight it goes without saying the United
mind workers stand behind
us to summarize I rub elbows of some
pretty powerful people and I'm doing my
very best to get any and everyone I can
to stand stand against this if y y'all
think I'm bad you definitely don't want
doors on this
[Applause]
microphone I'm I'm GNA put another hat
on my father a disabled co- Miner Moss 3
local 1256 and active in his Union has
been chaffering me around due to my
injuries he offered me this C Castle
Wood baseball hat a few days ago I said
pop can I keep that mwa pin he said sure
son my grandfather was taken out of
school in third grade to work on a
sharecropping Farm they were what you
call dirt
poor he couldn't read or write but he
worked his way up to becom a coal miner
at Moss 2 and made a great living for
his family I came close to being a third
generation coal miner however my father
practically begged me not to go into
mines so I became a first generation
college
graduate I'm proud of my Heritage and my
local president said it best this body
is attempting to desecrate sacred ground
men and women labored F and died in what
you want to turn into a trash St March 3
should be and may become a national
landmark 30 seconds Sir in my
forefather's honor and all those who
labored to keep the lights on I promise
you I will do everything I can to see
new leadership in those chairs if you
follow through with
this pran amadala from Star Wars if this
body is not capable of action I suggest
new leadership is needed end quote and
from what I'm hearing from the good
citizens of Russell County if I could I
would call for a vote of no confidence
in this body tonight I wish my dearly
departed wife could be here to give
y'all what for to I know she is in here
in spirit thank you for your
time Teresa
pecket Teresa
pecket Teresa pecket
here Amanda cook
Amanda
cook Roland
cook Walter
dingus
good evening my name is waler Dingus I
reside 1738 graic
road we have well I've heard this I
don't know how many times tonight about
118 million tons of toxic stuff over
here at Miles 3 most of that is C
refuges that's been described is slate
rock with some fine coals in it
that's basically it that's what's in
that now the survey that you had done or
the check you had done found all this
other in there I don't doubt that
there's some other chemicals in there
through the processing processing
Co but 6,000 tons of garbage every
day for 40 years comes up to 87 M
600,000 tons of garbage
waste solid waste all kinds of waste you
will have no idea what's in
it not if you will I won't know either
but I can tell you this I live three
miles from this slate dump here I've
never smelled
it it's never made
another so I would ask you all which
would you do to have in three miles from
your house that's SL out that don't
stink or 87 M 600,000 tons of stuff that
does think about
it I'm going give it some serious
thought and I'll try to make I'll try to
make this as brief as I can because I'm
getting pretty tired as I'm sure
everybody else in here
is but there was a question asked
before and I will put I will put this
this to you as a
proposal uh the Board of
Supervisors
here I propose a referendum ballot on
this so every citizen Russell County may
have an opportunity to vote their will
on this
Landfield and the other thing that I'm
really not sure about is why we are even
in a host agreement when none of
these questions have been answered
yet shouldn't we have the questions
answered before we enter into a host
agreement and allow this Landfield to
become put at mil 3
PL that said I thank you for your time
thank you
[Applause]
sir Marin
Morgan
it's
faon thank you Mr chairman and thank you
to the members of the board um I hope
you'll take this comment in the spirit
that it's delivered but I want to
congratulate you all for bringing the
political left and right together on an
issue during a presidential election
year that's uh
impressive um tonight we've heard
extensively
about environmental economic legal and
other
considerations but we've heard very
little if anything about this community
its history Beyond Cole its churches
it's elective social and other
organizations and its people when I
think about what's in the public
interest these people are what come to
mind my cousin Josh is here tonight with
the umwa
leadership Josh lost his father a few
years ago and I remember a comment um
from his uh obituary it said that his
Dairy was clean and well stocked and
that really stuck with me and you know I
think that most of the men and women in
this room when they pass it will be said
of them that their dairies were clean
and well stocked I hope that can be said
of me and I pray that it can be said of
of all of you and I hope you'll I beg
forgiveness I nervous public
speaker with that in mind I would urge
you not only to consider the voices
you're hearing here tonight but to make
them a top priority the priority with
reference to the economic figures that
were presented I urge you to do what any
good business person would do and
conduct an analysis that considers not
only gains but also potential
losses I would also urge you to think
about this County's future and I implore
you to ask yourselves whether young
people want a sustainable future or whe
whether they want to commit to a legacy
of urban
refug it has to go somewhere right
that's what we were told by rcr's
Representatives I would also urge this
body to remember that this is not the
fault or even that it is not the fault
or even concern of these citizens if
this body faces legal challenges for its
actions or its agreements or lack of
agreements with that I have two
questions the first is really a
clarification um for Council uh I think
it was asked earlier whether a host
agreement needed to be reached before
DEQ could conduct its um permitting yes
a host agreement does have to be reached
yes okay that's unfortunate this body
seems to lack significant amount of
knowledge about environmental
consequences so effectively this body
will be agreeing to something that it
lacks the expertise to agree to and that
is because that is that is thank you
that not because this body is you know
not intelligent none of us have that
information that's why DEQ is
DEQ and then one final
question and that is I understand this
project legally requires um the company
to bond with the state in case of
economic other disaster this is also for
council could the county require the
company to post additional bond to the
county in case of environmental economic
or other disaster especially that that
might directly impact the health and
wellbeing of These Fine people yes okay
thank you thank you for your
time
cameronne Cameron
sne I had a a a quick question
about as an environmental impact study
been performed on the site and I seen
like with the
proposed uh you know plan or model that
has been submitted to DEQ that dumps
Creek is going to be used as the
drainage outlet for you know the
collected
water and has there been any study upon
how that the wildlife you know the
species because there's 48 endangered
fish and muscle species that inhabit the
clinch how that they may be affected by
this specifically like if uh that
drainage Outlet if the water from that
is say one degree cooler or one degree
warmer than that of the clinch when that
enters into the clinch it could
drastically
affect the the the you know the species
that are in the Clinch River so I guess
I'm just asking has an environmental
impact study been performed
yet any excuse me any discharge that has
to go uh to surface waters yes will have
to be uh permitted by DEQ and it would
have uh affluent limitations on it
including temperature and other things
that are necessary to make sure that
there's no impact on the receiving scen
that's what is required of all uh
discharge permits okay thank
you
Amber
[Applause]
[Music]
hawson hello uh thank you guys first off
for giving us all a chance to talk and
please excuse me if
I uh get emotional here so I grew up in
Cleveland I lived in carbo iy Ridge back
Valley big a mountain I lived all around
this area and when I left to go to
college in Bia Kentucky I told everyone
there you know I don't know if I'll go
back because it's not much but it's a
beautiful place and I always said it's
God's
country just recently I watched a
documentary about a county in Kentucky
it's Clay County and specifically the
town of Manchester this documentary was
called an appalachin Dawn and if you
haven't heard of it you need to go watch
it but honestly I don't even know why
I'm looking at them because they're not
going to answer any of our questions
this is a moment where we see that the
powers that be are at odds with us we've
asked questions we've made it to this
far we say no but they're not hearing us
and this is honestly what I wanted to
tell you is
um when you can't do anything in this
realm you have to do it in a spiritual
realm and God said where two or more are
in agreement that they ask something of
me it shall be done Ephesians 6:10 it
says for we wrestle not with flesh and
blood but principalities Powers
spiritual wickedness in high places
these people want to say that our home
is only good enough to be a place for
trash I want to know if this place could
have been used for all these other
opportunities like I don't know
sustainable energy something that will
give us a hope in a future why is it
that the first option we have is someone
to just be like hey let's put a dump
there you know there are plenty other
things that could have happened so with
that being said this little County in
Kentucky Clay County they were stricken
with an addiction issue that was uh
profitable by County officials
eventually a massive FBI
uh investigation happened all of them
were rounded up for you know being
involved with having their pockets lined
to oxyon opioid epidemic and you know
basically just killing this whole
community and the churches got together
and they said enough you can go look it
up and find the first newspaper article
where they were reported about this but
these churches together these churches
got together and every one of them
prayed every one of them prayed I know
there's praying people in this room clap
for me if you're a Praying person in
this
room all right all right I urge you go
to your churches go to your ministers we
need to organize in a spiritual Heavenly
realm because these people are not going
to hear our cries down here we know who
the God of this world is we need to
reach out to the god of
us Kurt Kurt
sers Kurt
sers
good evening um Kurt
sers home's over in
carbo way the crow flies
thank you sir probably about a quarter
of a mile from where this proposed site
is and I know what it's going to do to
me and I keep hearing that this is a
done
deal and you all won't won't admit it
but everybody tells me that it's a done
deal and
uh the question I asked before at the
last public meeting was
was what is the bond you keep telling me
that the
DEQ that they figure that but I I want
to know a dollar figure what was the the
last land fill that was permitted what
was the bond on
it I don't know the answer to that but I
can't get
one while he's getting
that I can't get it tonight but I'll get
it to you fig you could whatever you
come up with we know that it's not
adequate and if you don't believe me
look at
Bristol the bond for this site that you
had a a film up there of the
go Pon put up a ball apparently it
didn't take care of
it uh in susex County the one that they
put in out there that they bragged about
one employee dumped 8,000 gallons of
Lech into the
wetlands you know what their fine
was
$114,000 and in the wetlands you can't
clean it
up I wish I could be on this board
that's writing this uh this host
agreement and if I can't be I'm asking
you I know what my future is I'll have
to sell my
place in that host agreement will you
put in there that whatever I lose when I
sell my
property John matney will have to pay me
the
difference
[Applause]
30 seconds sir thank you for your
time Christina
[Applause]
Cardell I will make this brief I just
had one well two or three question
questions what monitoring reports were
conducted concerning the esa listed
species during Rec Reclamation like
those should have already been made
available do you you're going to speak
into the mic a little
clear what monitoring reports were
conducted concerning the esa listed
species during the Reclamation
process because this is a like a
reclaimed stock
that utilized amler
funding you're correct you are
correcting your statement Isa one and
Isa 2 and those data is held
by but those are things that should have
been like should have taken place during
the Reclamation process according to the
amler funding objectives that is correct
and it did take place okay I'm
sorry I'm sorry the ISA 1 and Isa 2 din
a Reclamation was is that data is is
being
M Virginia energy has it they they the
one that was the oversight for the ISA
one the ISA 2 and the Nea okay so what
were the osme amler funding objectives
outlined in the guidance for project
eligibility I would have to pull
Virginia ERS Isa one and Isa 2 reports I
mean that is something that you can
obtain and then and you can too fory
yes
okay no that's fine and that's goes back
to being asking you know what were the
land use plans established during the
permitting
process say that again now I'm sorry
this and it also goes back to when Ben
price ask what were the land use plans
established during the permitting
process because if it's tied in with
that Emer
funding then it also has to adhere to
the Reclamation Act and they're very
stringent on their guidelines that is
correct yes so how does a
Landfield adhere to that to those
guidelines the what you got to
understand the current Reclamation per
met under Virginia energy as I had
stipulated before when Miss terod was a
good question the Landfield and Mr P can
elaborate on this the landfill has more
restri more restrictive guidelines than
a a Virginia energy permit that is a a
landside of
reclamation and those controls that they
have in place and regulations in are in
place are actually at a lower than a
landfill did I State there
thank
you that ends the public comment
list
okay any any of the boards have a any
board members have any
[Music]
discussion that's everybody that signed
the
list what was your name
sir
[Music]
did somebody get the
page hey my name is John dorsy I I did
sign I don't know if I'm you're missing
a page or what
there
okay all right well while I don't live
here in Russell County I did spend 14
years as a software engineer first next
door and then just up the hill at
CGI in 2021 we sold our house and moved
in with my inlaws to escape the landfill
disaster this in
Bristol we spent months dealing with the
consequences of mismanagement and
financial greed trying to profit off of
other people's garbage I personally
dealt with consistent headaches and
fatigue on nights when the odor and the
chemicals from the landfill would come
into our
house once our kids started having nose
bleeds and
headaches and and physical ticks we knew
our only choice was to leave we started
to uh wake them up in the middle of the
night to escape to a family member's
house uh just so that we could hopefully
avoid what we knew was going to be the
physical repercussions the next
day it was at that point we had no
choice but to just simply leave our home
it's important to mention that within a
few months of leaving all of these
conditions uh subsided um I don't have
as frequent headaches anymore our kids
don't have the nose bleeds the headaches
and the physical ticks so I want you to
put yourself in our shoes for a moment
watching your kids get sick and suffer
Health affects from Simply living in
your home and feeling helpless with no
way to fix it now we were fortunate we
had the financial means to to get out
and leave uh but unfortunately there are
still thousands in Bristol who are still
suffering even today so while I don't
live here my wife and I voluntarily
drove here over an hour away uh to to
serve as a cautionary tale landfill
should not be treated as a financial
opportunity uh to be capitalized on but
rather a risk to health and environment
that should be managed operated and
monitored as such if any of you have
questions or want to know anything about
our personal lived experience near the
landfill it's already late but I will
stay as late as you would like uh to
talk through that and give you firsthand
experience so listen uh for the sake of
the citizens here I I urge you don't
move forward with this plan
uh reconsider it I'll remind you guys
that the Bristol landfill was approved
by DEQ was monitored by DEQ and we still
had a massive disaster to deal with and
we're still dealing with it today uh you
urged us to ask questions uh I'll I'll
honor that so have two questions uh one
do we happen to know what the bond
amount was for Bristol and why it was
not used to clean up the mess years
ago um I will find
out okay thank you and then I'd love to
know uh like I know we mentioned that uh
Bristol's a little different where it
doesn't have the gravity they had to use
the pumps but anything that you guys can
do to to to not make this Bristol make
sure that's an intentional decision and
um I appreciate the
time J James come on that somehow i'
marked you off the list I'm sorry off
well I I checked you as already spoken
you should have spoken right after J
CH most of the questions I had have
already been asked and a couple of them
answered I spent about 4 hours on the
phone with theq when this first come
about uh household waste is not
regulated to the biggest extent
Industrial Waste is uh if I've got a
gallon of bleach I can throw it in the
trash and it'll end up in the land if
I've got a gallon of ammonia I can throw
it in the trash and it'll end up right
beside of it y'all should know what
those two bring when they're
mixed
U this is specifically from Mr
bre how does this site stay in
environmental hazard if RCR has already
been paid to clean it
up well they're in the process of
cleaning and if they finish how is it
still if they finish it wouldn't be and
they have to finish before it can become
a l i don't know the I
don't no they wouldn't have to finish
before we do they would not that's what
they're proposing do they have to finish
now it's a business decision on their
part I don't know are they not the
owners of the land they own the property
okay then would DEQ
and uh EPA not hold them responsible for
cleaning it up I don't think DQ would
have anything to do they're under the
Virginia
energy wouldn't they be held responsible
by whoever I don't
know
one other thing I would like to know is
how the waste gets from the rail siding
up to this spot is it going to be a belt
line like it was when it was
cines I've heard them say I I don't know
if they're going to Belt it if they were
going to Belt it or TR it I'm not
sure it's gentleman's time well uh this
one is for Mr Le I run the numbers on
this every way I could think to and at
6,000 ton a day for 30
Acres about six years was the most I
could come up with
[Applause]
okay is it going to be in the host of
that it cannot be expanded is that
something the board is land fors
well I don't know how that you got your
they the first sale that was proposed
through Department DQ is is a 30 acre
track is a 30 acres and the estimates
based off compactions and cover
compaction and cover based off the
landfill that got it had a 30-year life
with it now what was the second part of
your question the well let me explain to
you how I got that okay uh wonders of
the internet I looked it up and
household trash somewhere between 50 and
400 lb a ton or a cubic yard uh took 30
acres and made it into cubic yards and
it run into some pretty big numbers but
it was the best I could do taking
different measurements of cubic acre uh
was about six years of that 6,000 T day
the the permit that's been proposed by
Nova is for one sale 30 acres for 30
years
So based off of their calculations on
compactions and the rests and the depths
and the width and the dep depths that
that's what the calculation came to be
now second part of it as far as theq
regulations and state regulations if
they permit sale one they can't just go
to sell two and start building that is a
different component totally together rep
permitted am I correct David
yes they can't go beyond the pr first
permit you know I I had a lot more to
say
but people covered a lot of
it how much time do I have left time
time it's up yeah let let me ask you is
there anybody else that signed the list
I haven't called on Scott Scott
Hughes did I skip
you
Scott
Hughes I swear I thought you Angie I
skipped over you
too yeah I marked you down as hav spoken
I'm
sorry well that might have been one of
the times
I okay we're going to do question and
answer just want me
talk
okay have you thought about what you're
going to do yet about the convenience
sites throughout the county how this
will affect that are you going to keep
them open will people start having to
take their trash themselves down to Moss
3body about it
V have to stay open okay
um if a disaster occurs and we use the
Bond as far as it goes to clean it up to
close the
landfill and then the insurance from the
DEQ will cover the remainder to close
the
landfill where's does that also cover
the money from the disaster that we're
having to
work I
mean like if uh the methane catches fire
blows up blows the mountain
off is the bond I know the bond won't
cover anything
hardly
but who's going to cover the disaster
problems will that fall back
on I would assume the bond would be
calculated I don't know if they
calculated
explosion they only calculate how much
it would take to
close
did that is the
bot and uh it's recalculated every year
based on the disturbance but that's like
a regular close like they went bankrupt
hit the road Mr would that be covered
under the
insurance should be it wasn't a very
specific scenario but yeah they
the the requirement is for the that that
the county wants them to have both
environmental
Insurance liability insurance and an
umbrella policy over top of both those
in bond
also okay and you know that the
insurance companies that sell like home
insurance life insurance health
insurance they're not want to cut going
to want to cover people that live close
to that or if they do the people aren't
going to be able to afford the insurance
policies and 30 seconds
okay and do you have any idea like how
far how high up the trash is going to go
is it going to be taller than the
mountains excuse me the EQ permits uh
put limits on the height um and those
limits are primarily uh designed to make
sure that the um waste that's deposited
uh um is you know is U self-contained
isn't going to leave the site and then
that has to be uh capped uh by some
material some some soils or whatever
that then get
vegetated that's a decision that um the
EQ is going to make based on the
information that they have and I can't
answer how
high okay and I let me ask you I know
that the board has been really looking
at trying to save money but honest and
truly aren't we spending a whole lot of
money for one company to come in here
with the infrastructure their roads the
uh bridge to be able for them to get
over to the mountain to dump the trash
uh we didn't spend anything on
Bridge well I mean we've got a grant
approved that was for the industrial not
for the land but they said they would
have to have that bridge to be able to
get over to the landfill no no okay no
no so
wrong
no
guarante no they
don't time up is there anybody else that
I
overlook okay what's your name
sir you give me your address 935 New
Garden roadel
Virg did you sign the list yes swear
somebody had a fake list back there I
signed it
up somebody marked your name
up well a couple of things has been
brought up about faulting in this area
and there is faults Buffalo Mountain
fault comes down to dumps Creek real
close to this there's a fault down Main
dumps Creek in front of mos three
there's a fault line the dorton fault
that comes down the ridge line it's
going to be right next to this field
there are some finger fults that come
over real close to this impounded area
they're going to feel so the one thing
to consider there miss Garett is Right
chainy Creek deep mine did mine first
mine works are right up next to this
pool and and pillar Works uh if you're
standing on a dam looking up the hollow
you go across these pools on the right
side there's a little Hollow there I
think according to pesta report there is
going to be some F at some point in time
on Solid Ground I'm assuming it's going
to be in that little Hollow because
that's a logical place and there is
Piller Works underneath that that
happened years ago but you always do
have the possibility of subsiding there
I'm not really sure when that'll happen
so she was right about that I have a
question for Mr Lester we we've batted
this around all night about the second
option here and if we don't sign this
host agreement that we're going to get
sued by RCR the other company what basis
would they use to sue the
county when when they looked at they
that well anybody can sue anybody for
they have to have some sort of basis
okay then let me go to that currently
right now within the county our
ordinance says that if it meets state
federal guidelines they can it's
permittable so our ordinance says that a
Landfield can go in if it meets federal
and state guidelines second thing is
it's it's en listed as an industrial
site in our Compensation Plan plane use
plan and in the planning District's plan
number three is is that uh there is no
zoning there is not a zoning that
restricts it so of course that combin
and and Mr gent lock speak into it if
you wish to take and put into a
contract what we call poison pills
That's So strent based off of um they
could meet or they could not meet those
terms and conditions it would make it
too hard or too expensive to do what
Nova can come in and say he can
interject at any time no can say well
the the ordinance was in
place the land use is in
place the ordinances didn't restrict it
we negotiated it in good
faith so we need that that would to go
ahead and file on those those terms and
conditions we negotiated in good faith
your laws didn't restrict it your land
use didn't restrict it and your zoning
didn't restrict
it so they got a space that he over rock
in a hard
place no no it doesn't say that to will
the three scenarios that we gave
was either approve and that's not
approve it's approve or disapprove the
host agree the second one we can't say
what they'll do we can't speak legally
for them the scenario second one is that
they don't they say Okay Rosa County you
implemented a contract that we've been
negotiating for in good faith your
ordinances and your laws and your
regulations in the state does not
restrict it we're going to file suit for
you know good faith so and then three or
they just stop and they go off so you
mentioned something very interesting you
said You' entered into a contract with
them already no I said if you enter into
a
contract if you're negoti we're still
negotiating the
contract that's a that's a little
strange to
[Music]
me no you sorry yeah that was most the
answerers you you actually got four
minut the host agreement is a
contract any anybody else that I
over no you've already spoken my
question answer come
on still come on come on up
Sir you've already spoken
Charles King from the Belfast Community
I had a question of the board are they
aware that the board can apply a
waiver and uh leave this
alone say that again that that the board
can uh apply waiver decide they don't
want to be involved in
this I've never heard
that
ready it's in uh Virginia law waer
yeah to legal counsel I have no
knowledge of any such
waiver um do you have a citation for the
code provision or is it in the solid
waste Act
section 70 says waver of partition
participation by the host
Community is that in the
municipality host agreement the ACT
permits the governing body of the host
Community to wait further participation
in the certification
process I I just don't know what you're
reading from I apologize Virginia law
yeah what what there is no Virginia law
77 so it might be reading from the solid
waste regulations what you got let's
[Laughter]
see what is St
like we can W the
host yeah we can W the host Lord I
wouldn't W the host
agreement you can't waste the was
agreement is that was St you can wave
the host agreement then you have no
contract you can legally do that but you
have no
protection so the citation you were
showing us was out of the solid waste
regulations I have to not looked at that
provision so I can't comment as to
whether that whether the county could
wave I don't think they can wave a host
agreement because the code takes
precedent over regulations code says you
have to
have
host I would and
you okay why would you if you
yeah we're we're just four minutes short
of
midnight let's let's move
on does the board want to have any
discussion on this matter yeah I do uh
not to hold everybody here any later but
uh I I would like to see us in our host
agreement require further Studies by as
as mentioned in some comments by third
party independent groups
um to be paid for by the
developer before we go
further um and I don't know if we can I
don't know if this is in order but I
would like to see us put some citizen
members on the host agreement
committee um I'd like three since we
have two board members I'd like to see
three citizens placed on that
uh
committee
so if that's uh if that's in order I'd
like to make that a
[Music]
motion that's different to do one at a
time made I second your
motion I have a motion in a second on
the floor restate your motion yeah
that's two different motions please say
I just had one that we put three
citizens on the host okay okay that's
okay good question I
[Laughter]
think well I I mean I'll be honest I
have some suggestions on that as far as
people I'd like to personally see Jared
GRE I think he I think he brings good I
think Mr Dave Chek would be great he's
very very you know what I mean Nate you
have a suggestion uh I think those two
are great those were actually ones I
wrote down um and the way I kind of
looked at it is you know have someone
who's uh not favorable someone favorable
and someone who's in between who's a
good uh
mediator and that way they can all come
together and bring some serious concerns
Mr Cheeks has brought I've sat down with
him he's done a lot of research he has
brought a lot of information table he
has researched every host agreement
coming and going that I know of and uh
you know he's he's a really smart guy um
I'd like to put Philip Addington he's on
our Planning
Commission
no no I would I would suggest David
David Miller um David been in partis
negotiations with multi-million dollar
deals um that would be a third person
that would um that would be a good third
third candidate for that in my
opinion I
agree so you have three people David
Miller do yall know
David you have three
yeah you got the three people oh I'm
sorry David cheeks or cheek sorry is
cheek right yeah okay no s David
Miller and Jared
ring and the reason being is the reason
behind this since we're in discussion
is I think we need to bring the citizens
in in line here as Steve said they're
getting close the host agreement but I
don't think that we've really considered
the things that are the biggest concerns
to the citizens I think that these three
gentleman will bring legitimate concerns
to the table that can be addressed and
maybe added to or modify the host
agreement to to better suit us um in
order I mean it's not a gender issue
okay we have a motion we have a motion
on the floor
Mr chairman can I just ask a clarifying
point is is the purpose I wanted to make
sure what this committee is are they
bringing a group in to advise the people
to negotiate the contract or they
bringing in people to what what what is
this it have to be advis ad is it an
advisory committee yeah I I would I
would see this as an advisory uh
capacity uh to bring concern that they
have and try to mediate that with the
board members to come up with a better
host
agreement that would be that would be
the scenario
yes
correct that's the way I Vision it is
that allowable okay I have a motion
discussion everybody she could Mr
breeding before you call for that our
attorney could not hear what notar the
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conversation citizens actually consult
with the legal attorney to have
questions so if they had the citizen
members of the advisory committee could
they call Gentry law and be like hey
I've got this question and you would
answer so they wouldn't have privilege
to have the same so you couldn't help
them no
okay I realize we we're in discussion
that's simply trying to be OB that's
simply because I'm retained by the
county
Bo listen Okay Okay Okay so perhaps you
might want to call this help me out over
here a technical advisor committee that
works
independently and and has maybe idea
generation like uh what what we do at
the front end of things uh that you
bring you know folks together that that
have the technical expertise of various
things here is like the citizen
oversight board uh help me with that
what I'm looking for well what you're I
think what you're talking about is very
similar to what the code envisions
if this was going to be a municipal
owned landfill that you'd have a citizen
advisory committee that could
periodically meet with the board the
negotiation team share information take
bring information from the community to
the board about conditions and so forth
yes I think that's that's not be so the
question being is how do we satisfy what
Mr Kaiser and Miss D has seconded and
still be
legal um and and they you can't I just
don't know that you can do that because
you're your
proprietary you cross those boundaries
and that wouldn't you follow it just
like you would if it was um like for us
wouldn't you follow it I mean because
there have been advisory committees set
up right so wouldn't we just follow that
plan no because no I don't believe so I
have not looked at that issue just came
up right now but I don't believe that
they would be entitled to the same
attorney client privilege
no I'm not I'm not saying can't
have we H we have a motion on floor
let's keep a discussion on between the
board members
please okay we just have what I want to
see is them to have access to the board
members the host agreement so that they
can review and make suggestions and
consult and devel help develop this
thing that's been part of the problem
all along that's what that's what this
board was elected to do so if you want
to do that then we need to go into Clos
session but quite honestly we have
citizens that do not feel represented
correct correct have citizens who feel
very much left out so that's what that's
what we're trying to do with that okay
we have citizens that feel like they're
left
out that's the whole purpose right Nate
is that what you're getting at yeah
absolutely yeah I want the best if if
this is something that's GNA happen now
gred I've already said stated this can't
happen at all period unless we change
the the planning the plan the county saw
management plan
so I'm I'm not in favor of that anyway
but if that passes this board we need to
be prepared for the best possible host
agreement out there and I think the only
way to do that is to get citizen
involvement EPA DEQ I think it was EPA
published a paper that said the best
post Agreements are have citizen
involvement that we weak ones don't and
the weak ones are rushed I'm in no rush
and I don't see any citizen involvement
here so we need to do take our due
diligence take our time make sure we're
crossing our teeth dotting our eyes and
and we're listening to the valid
concerns of of PE smart people who've
looked at other host agreements and
worked on them and can bring those
things to the table I'm telling you
Steve and Lou if you sat down with Mr
cheek he'd blow your mind with the stuff
that he's he's he's told me and I think
he's be an a heck of an asset and we'd
be really doing ourselves a diservice if
we did not involve these people in this
process Mr chairman I'm just still
confused about is this an advisory
committee that is going to
advise and provide information to and
give feedback to the board members
negotiating this or is The Envision that
you'd have a citizen component to the
group that's going to be negotiating
with
NOA I I can't understand the motion what
you're saying is are they just advising
the board members on basically what the
board members are negotiating or are
they actually part of the negotiation
correct I mean I like to see part of
negotiation but if that's not agreeable
decision need to
be oh well AB well this is not to
actually vote on a post agreement this
is the negotiation part then it would
come to the board for a vote because
we're the ones that have to yeah or n
and they're next on the line for it so
but uh as
a I don't know if it's legal to have
three citizens on a negotiation
committee well it very it's it does I I
have not looked at that issue but I tell
you I don't it probably destroys your
attorney Cent
privilege so the other and the other
issue
is you know you'd be negotiating in
public for all intents and
purposes I'm just making a point I'm not
advocating one way or another I'm just
making an observation so what you're
saying is if if we do advisory only then
we still keep the attorney client
privilege if we do the other then we
don't is that what you're saying yes
what I don't want to see is if we don't
put them on if they're in advisory
capacity that there's still information
being withheld from them that they could
help work through especially given the
fact that you know just like you said Mr
CH you Mr Ring have both done a lot of
research on this stuff so I mean I I do
think they could he
I mean I'm willing to put them on his
advisory and if they come back to us and
they tell us that the host agre
committee Stonewall and not get them any
information or get them access that's on
that's on the host committee and I think
the public will be quite upset about
that so whatever we need to
do
[Music]
well I don't want to I don't want to
hurry up and get do this and then it's
not legal and then have to back up and
Punt and get do it again want to make
sure we're doing this right the first
time so so probably advisory committee
would be the way well that's next month
I don't want to wait a month to do this
M Miss am I live here listen okay thank
you now have a motion on the floor
discussion just give me a brief second
here now if you look at number five in
the 10 point1 which is the Bible of of
the host it says the public comments
shall take set to steps shall include
the formation of a assistant Advisory
Group to assist the locality or the
public author in the selection of the
proposed site for the sanitary
landfill now what you got to understand
this enity at the time is the county
we're doing our own landfill so we have
no Priory information at that time
because we are fo you I mean we're clear
and transparent see we're you got to
remember we're still in the economic
development with a private contractor
which may label this
information Priory
which he has so what do we do to make
them responsible for keeping that
confidentiality that's a do we need to
swear them into something I mean what do
we need to do an NDA is is any PRI sign
have sign NDA any Priory information is
any company that we deal with in
economic development that is the
decision of the company that has the
information if they see if they want to
do a confidentiality Clause with three
citizens that y'all pick that will be
the CIS the company's decision but if
they say well we're not we are not too
sure about this we've never done it
before or for any reason they got that
you know they don't have to share that
Priory information am I right correct
[Music]
yes
yeah okay board members what do you want
to do on this
motion we all right for right now since
the money the water's M mudded up nether
V on well for right now what I'd like to
do is I'd like to go ahead and put those
three members on advisory committee with
you and you Steve and Lan to sit down
and discuss
what they've found what the things that
they're suggesting and you can take it
back next month if I feel like we need
to push them on into a official capacity
then we'll do that at the next meeting
right now so you're modifying your
motion I'm modifying my motion these
three members to be on advisory
committee with Lou Wallace and Steve
breeding to uh discuss potential
additions and revisions of the of the
existing state of the negotiated host
agreement ter will you those people
David cheeks David Miller jar okay I
have a motion and a second on the
floor does everybody understand this
motion well I just want to make sure
that from the legal perspective does
this go against the attorney client
privilege this is just an advis as long
as you have an advisory committee that
is there to meet with people and provide
input and feedback board MERS to board
members that I think you're okay okay
that's all I want to hear from okay okay
I have one question also I'm sorry Mr
chair so uh the proprietary information
is not
sharable thank
you okay we're still G to be nowhere
then well at Le at least the two people
that are actually making decisions on
this thing have a down meeting with the
people who were have concerns and have
the information that's more than what's
happening right now so that's a step in
the right
direction okay I'm G to call for the
vote on this all in favor of this motion
raise your right
hand let do it but I want to not that I
prefer to have one for every District
but that's all
right all opposed ra your right
hand
so I have 61 motion
passes okay any further discussion by
the board can
we if not I'll entertain a motion to
adjourn I'll make that motion to adjourn
second and I would like to say thank
everybody
for all in favor
[Music]
I
for