BRISTOL, Va. — Work at the Bristol Virginia landfill is set to resume Monday following a pause for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Contractor Connelly & Associates is expected to resume installing a system to measure temperatures deep inside the waste. The contractor has completed five borehole drillings that will allow installation of the thermocouple system in the landfill, according to a statement from the city.
Probes in the five wells have been set at 165, 155, 218, 200 and 202 feet deep.
Five drillings represents more than half of the work outlined in the contract. Work began Oct. 26 and is expected to be completed by the Dec. 31 deadline established in an order by U.S. District Judge James P. Jones that is part of a preliminary injunction in Bristol Tennessee’s lawsuit over the landfill.
The drilling may play a role in increased recent reports of strong odors due to landfill gases.
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“I don’t think we’re seeing more reports of odors. I think what you’re seeing is the temperature inversion that is occurring. It’s colder and that is keeping the gases down closer to the ground,” City Manager Randy Eads said Tuesday. “I’m sure there is some odor coming from the boring that we’re doing. But every evening, after they are through boring the holes, that hole is capped and covered to prevent gases from escaping.”
This week residents on each side of the state line are scheduled to receive a two-page informational mailer from the city detailing the work that has been completed, the schedule for ongoing work and the proposed schedule for future projects to be completed in 2023.
Next up is the development and installation of a sidewall odor mitigation system. At its Nov. 22 meeting, the City Council unanimously approved allowing SCS Field Services to bid on that work. Parent firm SCS Engineers serves as the city’s consultants on the landfill work and prepared the specifications for the sidewall work.
“On Nov. 7, 2022, the city issued an ITB [invitation to bid] on a sidewall odor mitigation system that is required by the expert panel report to mitigate odors associated with the landfill … No potential bidders attended a pre-bid conference,” Eads told the council.
State law allows the council to permit its paid consultant to participate if their exclusion would “limit the number of potential qualified bidders in a manner contrary to the best interest of the public body,” Eads said.
Through its preliminary injunction in federal court, the city has a June 14, 2023 deadline, to complete installation of the sidewall odor mitigation system. The bid invitation requires its completion in 180 days after being awarded, Eads said.
“I do anticipate using state funds — the money from DEQ — to help pay for this project. We haven’t received that money yet, but I do anticipate state money will be used for this,” Eads said.
Construction of the sidewall system is expected to begin in December with the initial 220 feet in place by Dec. 31.
“The first 220 feet will be a trial section to determine if any tweaks will have to be made in order to make it work as efficiently as possible. If it works we will replicate that around the entire landfill — about 4,800 feet.”
There is no indication yet how much this project will cost, Eads said, but it will require more than $2 million worth of dirt to fill in all the way around the quarry landfill.
At the same time, leachate extraction, monitoring and analysis is to begin Dec. 1.
Yet another project is on the immediate horizon.
A gas collection system with a minimum of five new wells will be put out for bid in December with an expected completion date of June 20, 2023.
A separate gas collection system around the perimeter of the landfill, near the sidewalls, is expected to begin in March.
Also at its Nov. 22 meeting, the City Council approved nearly $600,000 in additional landfill expenses, paying $233,600 for landfill gas extraction leachate monitoring and reporting and $366,000 for a new monthly operation and maintenance agreement for the remainder of fiscal year 2022-23.
Because those expenses were not part of the city’s fiscal budget, the monies are coming from the unassigned fund balance, a city reserve fund, Eads said.
dmcgee@bristolnews.com | Twitter: @DMcGeeBHC
Work resumes Monday at landfill; other projects pending - Bristol Herald Courier
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