Dirt removal cost: $800,000

Dirt removal cost: $800,000
KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustinerecord.com
Publication Date: 11/13/07


The St. Augustine City Commission will hear city staff's plan today to correct the city's million-dollar mistake of illegally moving dirt from an old landfill to a water-filled borrow pit.

The plan is part of a contract with the Department of Environmental Protection. In the agreement, DEP levies a $33,698 fine and requests the contaminated dirt taken from an old St. Augustine landfill on South Riberia Street be removed from a borrow pit on North Holmes Boulevard.

After finding that the tipping fees alone to dump the dirt in a landfill would cost $1 million to $2 million, the city found a cheaper, innovative way to handle the problem.

"Necessity is the mother of innovation when you're staring down a $2 million trash bill," said John Regan, city chief operations officer. "Plan B emerges quickly."

Regan is proposing the city clean the city-owned borrow pit and put the dirt back on the landfill site. The materials will form a 19-foot mound and will be monitored to prevent groundwater intrusion. The mound will be covered with vegetation and will back up to a marsh, with the hope it will eventually become a park and meeting spot for bird watchers, Regan said.

"It seems counter intuitive, but we think it will work," Regan said.

The project's price tag: roughly $800,000.

The project could take 475 days to complete, Regan said. But before staff can move forward, the city commission must approve the plan.

DEP found that the dumping was recommended by two city engineers who did not carefully read the law before making a recommendation. The junior engineers have moved on to other jobs, for reasons separate from the dumping, Regan said. He said no one person is responsible for the wrongdoing, and the incident has created greater oversight for city projects.

"We did this as a city operation, and it was an organizational mistake," he said. "The responsibility is completely with the city and not with any other agency."


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