Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Waste Districts Examine Feasibility Of Merger

To build a landfill, or not build a landfill, this is the question being asked by the Southwest Central Regional Solid Waste Management District.

Because of the district's successful lawsuit against the Saline County landfill, the Southwest Central district is looking for a new place to take its trash. It has a number of options, build a landfill of its own, find a similar contract with another district or merge with the Upper Southwest district in Nashville on a fuel pelletizing project for Georgia Pacific.

Bill Fletcher, with B&F Engineering, gave the board packets filled with information on a possible landfill, including cost estimates on the sites at Gurdon and Curtis.

He said the Curtis location looks good and believes it's in the midway formation. Fletcher added the Gurdon site also looks promising, but there are more questions regarding this location.

International Paper owns the property in Gurdon where the landfill could possibly be located, while the Potlatch Corporation owns the Curtis site.

Potlatch, he told the panel, has been contacted and has agreed to allow the district to explore the Curtis property as far as it wants. This site has 240 acres, with a private citizen, Peggy Clark, owning 60-80 additional acres adjacent to it. Fletcher said it would be nice to get the Clark property, but isn't absolutely essential for a landfill.

The ensuing discussion revealed the district generates about 80,000 tons of garbage per year within the confines of the three counties. Fletcher said at this rate, a 240 acre landfill would last 40- 50 years.

However, the cost of such a project, including site development, buying the land, building an access road, fencing, equipment, financing requirements, interest, bond information and transportation costs, would run the district between $5 and $8 million.

Clark County Judge Grady Runyan said the Curtis site would be less populated than the Gurdon location, within a five-mile radius.

Fletcher informed the board the next step is to negotiate with Potlatch for an option on the land, then submit a formal pre-application to the state.

Kent Myers, Hot Springs city manager, said he would like more information before going forward with this idea. He said a summary tabulation of complete district volume and a time schedule for the next two years showing where the district needs to make key decisions, including an outline for pre-ap and final application submissions, along with all permits needed.

Garland County Judge Larry Williams said the district needs to closely evaluate all material presented by Fletcher between now and the final meeting of the year, which is scheduled for Nov. 20.

The district will also negotiate with Clark on the privately owned Curtis site.

Joe Ball, executive director of the Upper Southwest Regional Solid Waste Management District, was also on hand to discuss another option the panel has.

Ball told the Southwest Central group of a fuel cubing process Georgia Pacific is interested in. However, at this time, the Upper Southwest doesn't generate enough garbage to supply GP with the 250 tons per day it needs.

By merging the two districts, he said, this would be no problem.

In addition, the group was informed of the cost of such a project, some $3,254,000, which would purchase a building, storage area and all necessary equipment, including two cubers. This price also covers the cost of all legal work to be done.

He told them the benefits of fuel pelletizing would be to reduce the amount of refuse going into the landfill, while increasing the percentage of recyclables being removed from the waste stream.

The pelletizing process would operate two shifts per day Monday through Saturday, with one shift working Sundays.

All fuel pellets made in excess of 250 tons per day would be stored on site, or possibly sold to a pellet plant in Crossett.

Ball said the Upper Southwest can't start this project on its own, but needs help.

He was told the Southwest Central group is interested in participating and wants to have the first option should Ball's organization decide to go ahead.

In other business, Williams said there is still a vacancy on the Recycling Advisory Council after the resignation of Steve Beck, former city manager of Arkadelphia.

The panel was informed the district is now on the Internet with its recycling center being showcased.

Jim Goble presented a tire recycling update, saying more than 400,000 tires have been cleaned up in the district.

He said there are three or four more trailer loads of tires to be removed from the Friendship site. This project, he informed the board, should be completed by the end of this month, but no later than the end of October.

The district agreed to fund another $10,000 for the cleanup of the Friendship site.