Project Update
Green Ridge Recycling and Disposal Facility has evolved significantly over the past five years, including a reduction of the landfill’s disposal area to 1/5 of the originally approved design. In our effort to be the best partners to Cumberland County, we took action to address the community’s concerns in many areas. The highlights of the new plan of the project are:
Originally approved by the County to have a disposal area of ≈500 acres, the disposal area has been reduced to 104 acres.
The reduction in size of the disposal area increases the amount of buffer area on Green Ridge’s property.
Green Ridge has conducted a Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA), which concluded – and VDOT concurred – there would be no material impact on Route 60.
This project is significantly smaller than the initially approved proposal, with current projections showing only 75 trucks per day entering and exiting the facility. With operating hours of 6:00am to 5:00pm.
Green Ridge will now have a double lined disposal area, and will comply with DEQ requirements and all regulations. This is sharp in contrast to the County’s closed landfills which were unlined.
Green Ridge will have monitoring wells around the disposal area to ensure containment.
Due to the natural terrain, surface and ground water flow away from all but one nearby well.
To meet Virginia’s growing need for landfill space and to keep disposal costs down for Virginians, Green Ridge will only accept waste generated in Virginia. This is radically different from almost every other private landfill in Virginia, which accept out-of-state waste.
Green Ridge will not accept certain waste materials, including toxic/hazardous materials, nuclear waste, wastewater treatment sludge, fly ash or processed construction debris.
Waste will be inspected twice before it is dumped in the disposal area: at the transfer station, before it’s even on its way to Green Ridge and again upon entry to the facility.
Green Ridge is paying the county $100,000 annually to fund the salary of an on-site County Landfill Monitor, whose full-time job is to ensure the landfill is not accepting any illegal materials and operating safely.
In order to mitigate noise, landfill operations will be limited to normal business hours of 6:00AM- 5:00PM.
The Conditional Use Permit requires the maximum allowable level of noise of 67 decibels at the facility’s perimeter, which is equivalent to a household dishwasher.
The landfill can only accept a maximum of 1,500 tons per day, drastically reducing the number of trucks and the noise generated from them.
The major contributors to odor at a landfill (sludge, processed construction debris) will not be accepted at Green Ridge, making it much easier to control any odor. In fact, Green Ridge is will be one of the very few private sanitary landfills in the nation to not accept sludge.
The landfill will only accept 1,500 tons per day, with smaller daily open areas.
There will be a state-of-the-art cover material applied daily, that not only controls odor better than topsoil alone, but will also minimize any potential bird issues.
Green Ridge will have a gas collection and other odor management systems that will mitigate odors from the facility, while also generating revenue for the county.
The landfill’s disposal area cannot be seen from the Pine Grove School.
The landfill’s new, reduced plan means Pinegrove Road will never be relocated.
While the footprint of our project may have shrunk, our commitment to being a valuable member of this community remains stronger than ever.
Even with its reduced size, the landfill will provide significant revenue to the County – $650,000 annually in host fees, plus $50,000 in various County taxes each year.
The County will also save about $750,000 annually in trash disposal fees that it currently has to pay.
Green Ridge will annually donate $25,000 to the County’s recreational programs and $25,000 to an environmental science education fund in Cumberland’s public schools.
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