City of St. Augustine Votes Not to Send Illegally Dumped Solid Waste -- Dumped in Our Old City Reservoir -- Back to Historic Lincolnville Neighborhood

From Staff
Publication Date: 05/14/08

About 40,000 tons of St. Augustine dirt will be trucked to Nassau County under an agreement signed by St. Augustine city commissioners this week.

John Regan, the city's chief operations officer, said the agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection will save the city an estimated $2 million in disposal costs for the dirt, once part of an old landfill at the end of Riberia Street.

"The screened dirt will be used to cover a landfill in Nassau County," Regan said. "They are already buying topsoil for this purpose there. This agreement allows us to satisfy the DEP agreement."

He said Nassau County is charging St. Augustine a "token amount," only $1 per ton.

The city drew DEP fire in 2005 after residents noticed city trucks dumping dirt into a water-filled borrow pit on North Holmes Boulevard. The dumped material -- 35,000 cubic yards of solid waste -- had been removed from the long-closed Riberia Street landfill.

The city had also disposed of street sweepings and lime sludge in a second, smaller water-filled pit, and stored demolition material in the area. All the dumped materials were found to have leached contaminants into the water.

The city's plan in 2007 was to return the contaminated soil to Riberia Street. Residents in Lincolnville protested and that plan was scrapped.

The DEP order says the city must stop disturbing the Riberia Street landfill, properly dispose of the lime sludge stored on Holmes Boulevard, perform water and soil tests near the borrow pits, replace any well contaminated by the Holmes Boulevard dumping and pay $33,698 to the DEP.

Many of these requirements have already been met, city officials said. The deadline to meet all the requirements of the consent order is February 2009. The city begin that remediation in July.

"The city is moving forward with closure of the Holmes Boulevard site," Regan said. "We're doing right by the environment."

Vice Mayor Don Crichlow made the motion to approve the consent order; Commissioner Errol Jones made a motion to approve the agreement with Nassau County.

Both measures passed 5-0.

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