The Southeastern Public Service Authority (SPSA), a public agency that handles most waste disposal and recycling in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Franklin, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County, has announced that it will accept construction and demolition debris in its landfill, reports the Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
According to the paper, this decision comes nearly a month after private industrial landfill owner John C. Holland Jr. disclosed that the agency had been accepting C&D material for close to a year under several private contracts never publicly approved.
The contracts with four local waste companies included a disposal fee of $6.50 per cubic yard of C&D material, says the Virginian-Pilot. The SPSA board of directors has voted to extend that fee to anyone wanting to dispose of industrial C&D debris.
Holland tells the paper that the fee is below market prices and will undercut competition from private companies, but SPSA officials say the price is on par with what the other private construction debris landfills charge, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Holland has threatened to take SPSA to court in order to fight the agency’s decision, the paper reports.
John Hadfield, SPSA’s executive director, tells the Virginian-Pilot that it was a mistake not to seek public approval before signing the first four contracts and adds that the board’s decision “sets a fair rate that everyone can use.”