Correction: This article was updated April 25 to correct the projected height of the landfill, the monitor position and revenue the project would generate for the facility.
In the era of segregation, Pine Grove Elementary, built in 1917, provided Black people in rural Virginia a place to learn.
Muriel Branch, 82, who attended the school, is now concerned that the proposed Green Ridge landfill will harm the cultural site, which Preservation Virginia listed in 2020 as one of Virginia’s most endangered historic sites, as the project could be constructed next to it.
“When we were able to attend school, it was just absolutely invaluable — it was our ticket as with our white counterparts out of poverty,” Branch said. “If it was valuable to them it would be valuable to us as human beings, regardless of your skin color. Education opens up just so many vistas, and allows you opportunities to compete …
“We have been working for seven years to protect and restore this historic landmark. I take this personally.”
On Monday, Branch may have gotten some help before a final local vote on the project next month. The Cumberland County Planning Commission recommended a denial of the project after a motion to recommend approval of the project failed.
“This conditional use permit, in particular the host agreement, establishes a partnership primarily between the local government and the applicant,” said commission member Stephen Donahue, who voted against the project. “This is problematic because the property owners most likely to be impacted are excluded from this agreement.”
“I urge my fellow commissioners and board of supervision members to consider: if this landfill generated no revenue for the county, would we still support this application in its current form?” Donahue continued.
The decision came after a nearly three-hour-long public hearing in which about a dozen public speakers all spoke against the project with concerns over air and water quality impacts, odors, increased truck traffic and more.
Green Ridge, a subsidiary of waste management company GFL Environmental, argues that the project has been adjusted to address concerns to reduce impact to the historic school and implement safeguards while also providing a financial benefit to government coffers.
“We really feel like … each time they’ve come up with a concern for the school, that we have addressed those concerns,” said Jay Smith, a spokesperson for the company.
The proposal now
Initially proposed in 2018, the county granted a conditional use permit to Green Ridge to build the landfill east of Virginia 654, or Pine Grove Road, and north of Virginia 60, Anderson Highway, which runs west and east of the site into Richmond.
The location consists of 15 parcels totalling about 1,144 acres.
Among 39 conditions of that conditional use permit was the need for the landfill to be built within seven years, or the conditional use permit would become invalid. With that deadline approaching, and after pushback from residents, the company is now seeking a new conditional use permit for a smaller footprint for the disposal area, where the waste would be stored.
The disposal area has gone from about 500 acres to about 104 and reduced its collection from 5,000 tons per day to 1,500 tons per day, which in terms has reduced the previous financial commitments to the county.
The facility would no longer accept trash from out of state and that of hazardous materials, and instead be a dumping ground for collections from Southwest and Central Virginia. Details on the acceptance of coal ash is still being discussed, Smith said. The facility would be free for residents to use.
The conditional use permit now being considered would last indefinitely and come with closure and post-closure monitoring requirements.
Community concerns
Branch wasn’t the only one to speak up against the project’s impact to Pine Grove Elementary School before other residents raised concerns over health impacts. Her daughter, Sonja Branch-Wilson, president of the AMMD Pine Grove Project that represents about a thousand descendants of the school’s community, was among others.
“The legacy of our space means everything,” Branch-Wilson said. “Allowing a dump to intrude on our historically black community is more than just an inconvenience. It sends a clear message about how you value our heritage, health and legacy … are you going to prioritize people or profits?”
In 2022, her group, which uses the initials of the Agee, Miller, Mayo and Dungy families that attended the school, now owned by the AMMD Family Association, received a $290,000 African American Civil Rights grant from the National Park Service to stabilize the school. The stabilization work has been completed, and planning is now underway to potentially turn the school into a museum and exhibit space as part of a broader effort to make the community a historic tourism destination without toxins.
“We know that tourism is huge, and especially at an historic site,” Branch said, adding that eight other historic sites have been identified in the immediate area. “Yes, it’s more work. Lot’s more, but it helps to tell the full story of our county, and generate education and revenue.”
The concern over odor, air and water quality exists over a concern of chemicals and toxins leaking from the landfill, Jerry Dunford told commission members.
Despite Green Ridge having groundwater wells to monitor for leaks, Dunford likened the concern to when Kepone, released by the Life Science Products Company in Hopewell in 1975, led to the contamination of waterways of fish downstream in the James River.
“When the expense of fixing the wells is too expensive, they’re going to go bankrupt and leave,” said Dunford. “The citizens are going to be here thousands of years, drinking the water if they can. Why would we want to take a chance on destroying the environment? Why would you do that? Why?”
The 75 trucks coming and going from the landfill and the risk of debris littering roadways, as well as the different changes in the plan, concerned Robert Glaser.
“Every time we come here, the games’ been changed,” said Glaser. “You can put a different shade of lipstick on the same pig, but it’s still a pig.”
Barbara Speas told commissioners that her two sons in their 30s moved back to the county and are questioning their decision with the landfill.
“All the new homes that you’re seeing going up, all the young people that we now have in Cumberland, which we need, when they start driving down Route 60 to work and realise what a nightmare it’s going to be. They’re going to leave,” said Speas. “We don’t want this landfill for multiple, multiple reasons.”
Groups weighing in
One group formed to oppose the project, the Cumberland County Landfill Alert, said over 5,000 residents have signed a petition to stop the proposal.
Other environmental groups pointed to reasons to reject the project, including the Sierra Club warning about expansions and other landfills like the one in Bristol having issues. There, the landfill had odor issues that led to a court-ordered consent decree with the state to resolve environmental issues.
“Everyone who’s here is against that and that should matter because these people pay taxes too,” said Tim Cywinski, director of communications for the Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Other groups included the University of Virginia Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic, which is representing the AMMD Pine Grove Project pro bono. Director Cale Jaffe pointed to a Virginia Department of Environmental Quality report on Virginia’s solid waste that found the state has “more than 20 years of landfill capacity” available.
The clinic sent a letter to the county detailing its concerns, as did the Southern Environmental Law Center jointly with Preservation Virginia.
“There are still significant conflicts between the host agreement, solid waste permit application, and draft CUP associated with Green Ridge’s proposed mega-landfill,” wrote Carroll Courtenay, senior attorney with the SELC, and Will Glasco, executive director of Preservation Virginia. “These discrepancies mean the County cannot clearly assess the potential impacts of the project in its fully built-out and fully operational form or determine whether the proposed conditions safely mitigate those impacts.”
Project potentials
As a result of the project shrinking, Smith, the company spokesperson, said Pine Grove Road leading up to the elementary school will not need to move and other protections are in place.
The company also ensures there are enough tree buffers to prevent any viewing of the landfill’s expected 140-foot height, Smith said. And while expansion of the disposal area may occur, the most it could expand to is about 340 acres and accept up to 3,500 tons per day, Smith said. Such a move would “not allow for the moving of Pine Grove Road.”
The landfill would no longer impact any wetlands and use a double liner with groundwater wells to monitor and remedy any leaking leachate. There’s only one private well that is in jeopardy below the site, Smith posited, since water doesn’t “run upstream.” The company has engaged in “conversations” to ensure the facility doesn’t impact that property owner.
“There are landfills that are poorly managed and poorly built and built in places that probably today wouldn’t have been deemed suitable for a landfill, but that’s why the evolution of regulation and stricter regulation have led to much better landfills,” Smith said. “That’s what Green Ridge will be.”
To alleviate odors, the facility won’t accept sludge, which are the solid byproducts of wastewater treatment plants that help waste decay and are used to deter rodents. And as part of the new proposal, the company is also proposing to capture methane emissions, an emerging concept to reduce the most potent of greenhouse gases that could come from the facility. The company is committed to paying for the technology, is “not dependent” on grants and would share 10% of the profit with the county, Smith said.
To ensure compliance with all the safeguards, the company is offering to employ a liason to deal with community concerns and reimburse the county for a monitor of the site on top of the financial commitments it’s offering. Over the expected 30-year life of the project, the company plans to generate for the county about $1.5 million annually through a combination of in host fees, tax revenues, annual payments and $750,000 in fee disposal savings for county residents.
All this funding comes after several financial contributions the company has made, including $500,000 for the rezoning process and prepaid host fees, $4,271 for band uniforms at the schools and $250,000 for the development of new parks, Smith said.
“Things like that will help … ensure that Green Ridge can be a good neighbor. That is important to us,” Smith said. “These are not inexpensive things to do, but they are the right thing to do.”
Next steps
The project goes to the board of supervisors on May 13, Branch said.
The facility already has Part A of its solid waste permit at the state with DEQ. Pursued congruently as this local permit, the company will be filing Part B of its permit application with DEQ within a couple of months, Smith said.
It’s not clear how the board of supervisors will vote in May.
During Monday’s meeting, commission Vice Chairman Hubert Allen argued that he’s heard of people telling him “we can’t let this go, we need something to help the tax base in this county.
“Granted, it’s not what I want, but it’s better than nothing,” Allen said, before going on to state, “I’ve heard nothing tonight that will convince me to change my vote. Everything I’ve heard tonight has been opinion, opinion, opinion. There’s no hard facts.”
But even with the recommendation of a rejection from the planning commission, in 2018, the Board of Supervisors then overrode a similar recommendation to grant the first conditional use permit, Branch said.
“We’re battleworn, though. We’re coming back,” Branch said. “We’re going to make those facts a little more understandable.”
Cursing exchange
After the meeting, as Cardinal News inquired with county staff about the names of speakers, Gina Martin engaged in a conversation with Allen that turned heated and included displeasure over the amount of taxes she has to pay in the county.
After Allen stated he paid $22,000 in taxes, Martin said, “good for you … you think that’s low?” and ultimately walked away saying, “Sir, you’re trash.”
“Ma’am, you’re a f—ing b—h,” Allen responded.
As the two moseyed out of the meeting space, Allen told Martin in front of the entryway he “made a mistake,” but that what he said was also “free speech.”
As Cardinal News spoke with Martin about the incident, Allen told her, “I’m sorry if I offended you.”
“Sir, I’m not speaking to you,” Martin said.