The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to reserve for potential use part of the Cumberland County landfill that is set to be run by Green Ridge Recycling and Disposal Facility.

Prince Edward County Administrator Wade Bartlett confirmed that this reservation is not of any cost to the county but is simply a way for Prince Edward to keep its options open in the years to come should the need arise to use part of Cumberland’s landfill.

“We have received a request from Green Ridge Recycling and Disposal Facility,” Bartlett said during the board’s regular June meeting. “That is a subsidiary of County Waste, and that will be the subsidiary that will open and run the landfill in Cumberland County. Green Ridge was required by (the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality) DEQ to contact every locality in Virginia and offer them the ability to reserve capacity in that proposed landfill.”

He noted that with Green Ridge’s letter was an “Agreement to Accept Reserve Capacity” form and a “Statement of Denial of Reserve Capacity” form, one of which is to be signed when the county reaches its decision.

“Signing the agreement would not lock the county into any obligation to actually use their landfill,” Bartlett said. “I clarified that with Mr. (Jerry) Cifor, who is the senior vice president who will oversee design, construction and management of that site. As both the letter and the agreement state in the reserved capacity statement, the county and Green Ridge must reach a mutually agreeable contract before moving forward.”

Then Bartlett explained his perspective on the issue and gave his recommendation.

“The county has been well served by operating our own landfill for many years, and there is no intention to change operations,” he said. “It will take approximately two to three years, anyway, before this proposed landfill in Cumberland County is actually ready to accept waste. Over that period there could be many unexpected items that arise that we don’t know anything about at this time, such as DEQ regulations, increased cost or decreased revenues that could make it appealing for the county to take advantage of this offer. So it would be in the county’s best interest, I think, to keep all of our options open.”

“At the disposal rate that we are seeing currently, I would recommend the county request to reserve 52,271 cubic yards of capacity annually,” he added.

Asked how he arrived at that figure, Bartlett gave details on the county’s present disposal rate.

“We’re using about 90 tons a day,” he said. “Each ton is about six-tenths of a cubic yard.”

He stated that disposal rate is something the county has tracked for years.

“Right now that’s actually kind of a high amount,” he said. “We’ve seen our usage go up considerably, and we’ve talked about it a couple times — our revenue has also gone up correspondingly. Some of that we feel is because of all the construction that is occurring now …”

He cited Longwood University’s renovations.

“When people build houses and whatnot, you see an increase,” he added. “Probably when all that construction is completed on Longwood and Hampden-Sydney — don’t forget we’ve seen considerable building out there — then that amount would eventually fall. But that’s how I calculated it.”

Lockett District Supervisor Robert M. “Bobby” Jones asked, “How much waste does County Waste put in our landfill now?”

“They’re our single-largest customer outside of Buckingham County,” Bartlett replied.

Jones said, “So obviously once they get that (Cumberland landfill) opened, then they’ll be taking all theirs that way.”

“Well, that’s not what they’re saying, but I don’t believe it either,” Bartlett said. “I don’t know why they wouldn’t, but they said that they would not want to haul it that far.”

“That’s good to hear,” Jones said, “but I just wonder if we lose our biggest customer — of course, this is way down the road — we would want to keep our options open to use their landfill if it got to where our landfill couldn’t operate properly. When you think you might lose your biggest customer that could be something that happens. I sure hope it won’t, because I think our landfill has been run well and been a good moneymaker for the county, but I think we do need to keep our potential use of that landfill (open).”

Bartlett reiterated that potential use would “be on down the road.”