As is, Florence landfill's days are numbered

FLORENCE - No matter how often it is mashed, compacted, stacked and shifted, space will eventually run out.

And its new home could take years to develop.

That's why city leaders are already looking for a new way to store trash, even though they feel Florence's landfill is at least seven years from reaching capacity.

Trash storage, you see, is a slow-moving cash cow.

It would cost around $1 million each year to send trash to another dump, a potential seven figures to expand the landfill and probably more than that to find a new site, sanitation experts say.

The city's 70-acre landfill along Savannah Highway is divided into separate cells for household and industrial waste. And there is enough undeveloped land for two more cells that could last around five years.

David Koonce, the city's street, solid waste and recycling manager, expects at least seven additional years at the landfill but suggested plans are essential to prepare Florence for the inevitable end of that phase.

"We hope we can squeeze that much time out of it," he said.

The figure is just an estimate, though, comparing the site's elevation and compaction rate with the average daily intake of trash.

The site is licensed to receive 225 tons of garbage a day, but Koonce said they take in around 160 tons, a drop-off he partially attributes to a surge in the city's recycling program.

Landfill talk has taken on an even greater urgency now that the 157-acre Florence Golf and Country Club is for sale. The nearly century-old club is adjacent to the landfill and Cypress Creek, which some officials say would be a natural - and cheap - progression.

The city is one of three parties that have expressed interest in the property, including the University of North Alabama and William Keelon, owner of an assisted-living community in Lawrenceburg, Tenn.

The committee tasked with pursuing the sale has not revealed if there have been any offers yet. They requested formal bids by the end of October. But the potential acquisition has sparked conversation.

"We're faced with three options," Councilman Dick Jordan said. "We can try to develop a new landfill, which is almost impossible to get a permit for these days. We can expand the current landfill or we can look at building a transfer station.

"We need to look at all options. We need to start planning now."

Permits for new landfills can take many years because of the stringent environment and spatial requirements.

Although storing trash here may not be the most aesthetically pleasing option, it's potentially the cheapest. Koonce said there are already plans for a transfer station, a building with a concrete floor on which garbage gets dumped before being hauled to a regional landfill.

Cost is the pitfall of such a move, however.

"That could cost more than $1 million a year," he said of paying someone else to take city waste. "You could pay that same amount for (the country club property) and it could last more than five years."

But the fate of their pitch is still undetermined.

"If they buy it, fine," Koonce said of the golf course. Referring to a potential transfer station, he said, "If they don't, the other plan still exists."

City officials have said they would rely on a multi-million-dollar enterprise fund in the solid waste budget to acquire the land.

Mayor Bobby Irons said he was inclined to add on to the current landfill rather than building a transfer station or finding a new site.

"In a perfect world, you would like to have the landfill and continue to operate it in the most cost-effective way," he said. "With a transfer station, you're at the mercy of what they want to charge you. That's the reason you don't want to do that unless it's an absolute must."

And funding a transfer station might require an increase in trash pickup rates.

Koonce said rates have not been adjusted since 2001, which is particularly problematic for commercial garbage.

For example, a commercial four-yard dumpster box emptied twice a week costs $44 a month, compared with more than twice that in Athens or Decatur, Koonce said.

He said residential rates are more consistent with neighboring areas, though.

Other Shoals landfills have already faced such decisions or are years away from doing so. Both Colbert and Lauderdale counties have their own solid waste departments.

Earlier this year, the Lauderdale County Commission approved the extension of more than 70 acres to the county's disposal area in the Underwood community north of Florence.

Unlike Florence's landfill, Lauderdale doesn't keep household waste, instead transferring it to an Environmental Protection Agency-approved station in Lawrence County, near Courtland.

County commissioners have said the expansion would serve county residents for 50 years. They are awaiting permits from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

Howard Keeton, manager of the Shoals Solid Waste Authority, monitors the landfill used by municipalities and rural areas in Colbert County.

He said they are a few years away from initiating the same process as Florence but added such talk can never come too early.

"You've got so many hurdles to jump through for that type of decision," he said. "It's something you have to think about seven, eight years in advance. Somewhere in the near future we'll need to look at it too. But I'm not saying we're at that point yet."

Like Lauderdale County, Colbert County doesn't keep all the waste it receives. Keeton said they transfer 150 tons a day to a landfill in Mississippi, while housing 800 tons daily of non-hazardous industrial waste. He said costs would substantially increase if they were forced to transfer what they now maintain.

Some environmental advocates are already opposing the prospect of a more expansive landfill for Florence along Cypress Creek, no matter how cost-efficient it is for the city.

David Cope, a University of North Alabama math professor, lives on Eunice Avenue overlooking Cypress Creek. For years, he has accused the city of not properly monitoring the landfill, saying runoff is polluting the creek.

"I was stunned to think that anybody in a public position would advocate destroying a beautiful scenic area like the country club for this," he said. "City officials should be more thorough in their investigation to make sure it fulfills strict landfill standards."

Based on his own studies, Cope contends leachate, the liquid that drains from a landfill, is leaking into the groundwater. He has seen high levels of barium, nickel and other materials he said only can be explained by the landfill.

"Any suggestion that the landfill is not contaminating the groundwater has to be questioned in view of specific scientific evidence to the contrary," he said.

Cope passed his results along to ADEM and said officials told him they would visit the area for further testing.

Landfill standards were established by Subtitle D of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1991. The legislation gives permit-issuing power to state and local governments.

If anything, Cope thinks this development will worsen the situation.

"It would become even more pronounced because the terrain is so steep," he said.

Koonce has defended the landfill against such accusations, saying the city is complying with all federal and state standards and that no leachate is leaking into the water.

The landfill's future still remains hazy, but some City Council members, who would have to approve any acquisition, appear to support pursuing the expansion.

"My preliminary thoughts are we need to retain our own landfill," Councilman Sam Pendleton said. "I'm following the mayor's lead on this. There are still negotiations going on. I'm going to defer to him on this."

Brian Hughes can be reached at 740-5720 or brian.hughes@TimesDaily.com.