History
Since the
West Virginia Legislature created County Solid Waste Authorities in
1989 the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority has slowly and
methodically implemented its plan to convert a primitive landfill into
one of the regions finest Integrated Solid Waste Facilities.
Our first priority was to convert our operation from simply a
Landfill into a modern lined facility that would be in compliance with
all state and federal guidelines. Today we have just completed
construction of Cell #6 which is 9 Acres giving us a total of 23
permitted acres. We are in the final stages of completing the process
to increase our permitted area to 80 Acres. We are in the very early
stage of study of converting portions of our permitted area to a
Bioreactor Landfill. In addition, we have planned for the future by
acquiring additional surrounding property increasing our Acreage to 600
A. This will give us enough airspace to satisfy the needs of our
citizens well into the next century.
Our second priority was to establishing an Education Program. The
creation of a full time position devoted to Schools and to Civic Groups
to teach being good stewards to our environment by not utilizing or
creating “open dumps” Our philosophy of “YOU CAN’T TEACH THEM TO
RECYCLE UNTIL YOU FIRST TEACH THEM NOT TO THROW IT OVER THE HILL” seems
to work. With the population base in our service area showing little or
no growth the amount of refuse being brought to our landfill has
increased by approximately thirty (30) percent.
Our third priority was to establish a full time “Litter Control
Crew”. We adopted the philosophy of “NOT JUST TALK ABOUT IT, LETS DO
SOMETHING ABOUT IT”. It is important that the citizens in our region
see us in action. This program has become our most visible and popular
programs.
Our next priority was to build a modern regional recycling
facility. This was completed in late 2004. A large portion of the
nearly 35,000 sq. ft. is devoted to education. A large “display area”
allows us to demonstrate items that con be recycled and products that
are made from recycled material. An Education Classroom with theatre
style seating, to accommodate 100 children, overlooking the recycling
area allows our guests to observe the recycling process in action.
Our final goal of having a Law Enforcement Officer was accomplished
in mid 2004. In co-operation with the Raleigh County Commission aided
by legislation passed in 2004 we were able to hire a “LITTER CONTROL
OFFICER”. Desiring to assure that this phase of our program to be
accomplished in a professional manner we chose to hire a retiring
certified police officer, Lt. Jim Stone from the Raleigh County
Sheriffs Department. It is our belief that this work must be handled in
a manner that only a professional officer of the law could.
Future plans call for the creation of Recreation Facilities to be
constructed on our closed and reclaimed landfill areas. We are studying
the possibility of utilizing the methane gas created in landfill to
light the recreation area for nighttime use.
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