Landfill plan to go before residents

Landfill plan to go before residents



By KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 04/29/08

Lincolnville residents will be the first to have a say in the city's new proposed plan to remove illegally dumped material from a borrow pit and take it to a Nassau County landfill.

John Regan, city chief operations officer, told St. Augustine City Commissioners Monday that he promised residents of the Lincolnville neighborhood they would be the first to hear the proposed plan. He'll meet with residents May 8 and then come before the commission May 12.

The plan then will be tossed to the Nassau County Commission. If approved, the city expects to begin the nine-month project in June or July, Regan said.

In 2005, the city took dirt from an old landfill site on Riberia Street in Lincolnville and dumped it into a water-filled borrow pit on Holmes Boulevard. That violated state Department of Environmental Protection rules.

The DEP fined the city and told it to remove the waste from the Holmes Boulevard site.

The city originally entered an agreement with the state to return the waste material to the Riberia site, but neighbors vehemently fought it. Residents Tony and Judith Seraphin filed a petition with the DEP on Dec. 29 against the plan, freezing the project while the state investigated, which is the usual procedure.

Under the new plan, the city will pull out the material dumped at Holmes Boulevard and use heavy machinery to screen it, sifting out any solid waste. Regan expects that about 5 percent of the material is solid waste.

The remaining 95 percent is clean soil that would be used to cover Nassau County's landfill, Regan said.

The director of Nassau County's landfill has said the plan would save him money. Nassau pays $1.50 a ton for topsoil, which is used daily to cover the landfill. St. Augustine would give the landfill 40,000 tons of topsoil and have it transported to the landfill.

The project will cost St. Augustine roughly $840,000.

The city also would pay about $350,000 to cap the old landfill site on Riberia Street and monitor ground water.

Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042908/news_txt01_010.shtml

© The St. Augustine Record