Albemarle County Commits to Ivy Transfer Station

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Albemarle County will invest $2.5 million to bring the Ivy Landfill Transfer Station’s operations under roof and therefore in compliance with the state Department of Environmental Quality’s requirements. The Board of Supervisors’ 5 to 1 decision (Ken Boyd dissenting) on November 4 means that the Ivy station will remain viable for at least 15 more years. The county faces a Dec. 31 DEQ deadline for becoming compliant.

Supervisors considered a second possibility, roofing over the currently existing buildings, which would have enclosed 7,800 square feet, but decided on a new and larger facility that will contain 10,000 square feet. The new structure will be erected on the left side of the current entrance. The existing structures will dismantled and sold for scrap once they are unnecessary. That will allow the later development of better recycling operations on that site, according to Douglas Walker, deputy county executive for community services.

Going for the larger building means that sorting of trash, dumped inside on the floor, can be handled with more flexibility and that all transfer of trash will happen under cover. Sorted trash will be top-loaded on trucks in what is called a “passive load,” meaning uncompacted, and trucks will haul it to a landfill in Amelia County.

About half the trash brought to Ivy now is construction debris and another quarter is bulky waste such as mattresses and furniture. The remainder is common household trash. The floor expanse means trash will be mixed with greater efficiency in order to load trucks more efficiently, Walker explained.

The new facility will also allow more room for drop offs and alleviate the backups that sometimes occur at the station now.

The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, an entity created by Albemarle County and the City of Charlottesville, is the owner of the landfill and transfer station. It is also the possessor of the DEQ permit, and an agreement on how to build and operate the new facility is being negotiated now. Charlottesville effectively backed out of the arrangement several years ago when it began sending its trash to Van der Linde Recycling in Fluvanna County, but it remains a formal party in the RSWA. City residents do still use the Ivy station, but majority of waste brought there comes from county residents.

“The city says they don’t want to pay because they don’t use it,” said Walker. The county is taking responsibility for paying for the facility’s improvement and will continue to pay the RSWA to operate it. “This is not a short-term investment,” he said.

More than half the money needed for the new building is already set aside in the current budget, Walker said. The remaining cost will likely be financed. Construction of the new building will require eight months, once design approvals and permits are secured, meaning that the facility won’t be open for 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, things will remain as they are.

“This accomplishes what DEQ wants, which is to get the trash covered,” Walker said. Rain on the trash creates leachate.

“There’s not a good pathway for county ownership of the transfer station and having possession of the permit,” he said. “It’s too complex and not in the county’s interest at this time. Once we get over this [construction] hurdle, the focus will be more on improving recycling there, hazardous waste handling, electronics, etc.”

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