On May 18, 1998, the City of Bristol, Virginia announced the dedication and formal grand opening of the Bristol, Virginia Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility. This ceremony marked the culmination of an eight year effort to develop a state-of-the-art facility that is unique in the solid waste industry.

In January 1990, the City Council began the investigative process that ultimately lead to the retaining of a consultant and the formation of a citizen advisory committee to study the feasibility of siting a waste handling facility in the abandoned Vulcan Materials, Co. quarry adjacent to the existing City landfill.

In late 1990 it had been established that the concept had both practical and economic merit and the extended process of obtaining and constructing the facility was initiated. STS Consultants, Ltd. of Vernon Hills, Illinois was employed to design and obtain the permit for the facility while Thompson & Litton, Inc. of Wise, Virginia assisted in extending the life of the existing landfill until the quarry could be developed.

Extension of the life of the existing facility also involved the use of cutting edge technology. First, substituting a geosynthetic fabric reduced the use of soil daily cover by a margin of almost 500%. Second, the City employed a process of landfill reclamation, or mining, to remove material from previously wasted airspace occupied by soil cover and replaced the soil with waste. This process also allowed us to utilize the reclaimed soil as cover on those occasions where soil cover was required.

The City received Part A approval for the siting of the facility in September 1992 and the final, Part B approval, the actual permit, on February 14, 1996. Construction of the $14M first phase was begun in September 1996 with two preliminary contracts for pre-scaling of loose material from the sidewalls and a site pre-grading project. Robert Clear Coal Company of La Follette, Tennessee was awarded both of these contracts.

The major portion of the construction began in the spring of 1997. The largest contract, for approximately $7M, the actual balefill itself,  was awarded to Phillips & Jordan, Inc. of Knoxville, Tennessee. The contract for the transfer station and some sitework, approximately $3M, was awarded to Crowder Construction Company, Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina. Construction was completed in February 1998.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality conducted its final site inspection on February 20, 1998 and issued an operating permit for the balefill portion of the facility on that date. Operation in the balefill began at 7:00 a.m., Monday, March 2, 1998.

The quarry landfill is the centerpiece of Bristol's Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility and is adjacent to pre-existing facilities. This location allows integrated monitoring systems in which some monitoring activities are shared, providing an overall cost saving. The gradient control system also controls the groundwater flow at the existing landfill. The gas and stormwater management systems are integrated, to the maximum degree possible, for both facilities.

In addition to its landfilling operations, the City also composts some yard waste and diverts its brush to the wastewater treatment plant, jointly owned with Bristol, Tennessee, where it is processed into wood mulch or combined with treated, dried sewerage sludge to produce a dry compost product. Stumps, bulk wood, trees, etc. too large to compost are burned in a permitted incinerator to conserve valuable landfill airspace. The incinerator is state-of-the-art and is virtually emission free.

We utilize a recycling process to grind waste tires with a multiple shredder into usable end products such as a landfill cover additive or as civil engineering construction materials in our landfill construction activities. These uses are eligible for End User Reimbursement Funds, an additional source of revenue for the City from what had heretofore been considered a liability.

In addition to addressing a number of regional solid waste needs with our Integrated Waste Management Facility, Bristol has also developed a reuse plan for a derelict and inherently dangerous property which is located within our municipal boundary. By filling the existing quarry, we have preserved virgin land that might otherwise have been needed for a landfill, proclaimed a viable land use for the abandoned quarry, provided an additional source of revenue for the City without imposing a financial burden on our citizens and removed a potential liability from our midst.

The City of Bristol is very proud of its technologically modern facility. It has also provided many landscape amenities as well as litter and cleanup control.  Paper picking, lawn maintenance, tipping floor and landscape screens have all been recognized and complimented by the many visitors who view and tour the facility.  The City also focuses attention on the external aesthetics including the roadway access and improvements, vista preservation, protective tree screens, and perimeter double fencing to prevent unauthorized access.

Aside from aesthetics and safety control, the City has also maintained a strong neighbor, community and customer relations program.  Since its groundbreaking in 1996 and the later grand opening in 1998, many school and industry tour groups have visited the facility and are awestruck by its size, complexity and appearance.  The quarry landfill has also hosted international visitors from three continents including London, England; Buenos Aires, Argentina and Kirkland Lake, Ontario, Canada.  Each of these visitors is planning a similar quarry/mine landfill of its own and found our landfill to be an excellent example.

The City of Bristol has shared its innovation and creativity and presented three papers that detailed the various aspects of design and construction innovations that were necessary to complete the quarry landfill through the Phase I construction. These papers were presented at the 2nd and 4th SWANA Annual Landfill Symposia in Sacramento, CA and Denver, CO, respectively, and at the joint annual conference of the Old Dominion and Carolinas Chapters of SWANA in Wilmington, NC in 1999. Additionally, printed and audio-visual materials were distributed at the SWANA Federated Chapters of New York annual conference in Bolton Landing, NY in 2000.

To maintain our awareness and understanding of new industry developments, we maintain membership in the Southwest Virginia Solid Waste Management Association and the Old Dominion Chapter of the Solid Waste Association of North America. To ensure that we remain current on solid waste related legislation and regulations, we keep in close contact with the Virginia DEQ and play an active role in the state legislature and the regular inspections of DEQ personnel.

We believe that everyone wins with this type of land use planning and operations management. Bristol and much of the region will meet its long term need for solid waste capacity in a setting that is ideally suited to solid waste disposal operations and somewhat isolated from the general public. The facility provides for the protection of the local tax base and supports economic development in the region.