Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Landfill Deal Reached

A contract agreement has been reached between the Southwest Central Regional Solid Waste Development District and BFI Waste Systems.

BFI was awarded the bid at a recent meeting of the district. The two agreed to a five-year contract for waste disposal, according to Garland County Judge Larry Williams, the director of the district.

The solid waste district is composed of Clark, Garland and Hot Spring counties. These three counties generate about 80,000 tons of garbage each year.

Beginning Oct. 1, the district will begin taking its refuse to BFI's Model Fill landfill in Little Rock. The Pulaski County Solid Waste Management District approved the inter-district waste transfer on July 29.

Williams said the cost of disposing the trash will remain the same at $15.70 per ton. This is what the district had been paying Saline County the past several years.

The southwest central district was forced to look for another landfill to dispose of its garbage because its contract with Saline County will expire at the end of September.

The likelihood of Saline County renewing the contract was slim as the southwest central district had successfully sued the landfill when it illegally raised its tipping fees a couple of years ago. Should Saline County have been willing to negotiate with the southwest central district, the tipping fees would most certainly have been increased substantially.

"We were faced with the likelihood of considerable cost increases at our current location," Williams said, "so several months ago we began the process to consider alternative sites. We're obviously very pleased to enter into this new long-term agreement at the same cost with a quality company like BFI.

"In making this decision, we also considered other important factors including service, transportation, expense, environmental compliance, operational conditions and volume capacity."

BFI is headquartered in Houston and provides waste services from about 770 operating locations nationwide and across the world. Don Fletcher, BFI's vice president for landfill operation, is responsible for the state of Arkansas.