Finding

a place to put the trash gets more complicated

all the time... so much so that Fayette County is

looking for a consultant to help sort out the

future of solid waste management here.

"We

need something to synthesize these

problems," said county manager Billy Beckett

in presenting the situation to the County

Commission last week.

contract for landfill services from Southern

States Environmental Services expires in two

years, and a number of problems need to be worked

out concerning the remainder of that contract,

said Beckett.

Fayette

also faces serious environmental questions in the

closing of the county's old landfill on First

Manassas Mile Road. Experts currently are

studying pollutants seeping from the landfill to

determine how much of a problem that's going to

be.

And

questions about the future of waste handling

after the current contract with Southern States

expires also haunt local officials. Waste is

currently being hauled out of the county, but

that may not be allowed to continue indefinitely.

The possibility of eventually opening a new

landfill inside Fayette and other solutions need

to be explored, Beckett said.

Commissioners

agreed to allow county staff to develop a request

for proposals from solid waste consultants. The

idea, said Beckett, is to tie all three issues

together and "help us develop a course of

action."

All

the problems involved are serious and potentially

expensive, he said. "They have tremendous

potential implications for the county, and we

need to see how much money we're talking

about."

Commissioners

noted that the county recently sent a solid waste

management plan for approval by the state, and

wondered why the answers to Beckett's questions

aren't in that document. But that plan is very

general, he said.

"We

don't have any specificity in that plan," he

said.

"It

wouldn't take much of a benefit to easily pay for

the consultants' costs," said commission

Chairman Harold Bost.

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