By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

Rappahannock News Staff Writer

When the State Department of Solid Waste Management issued a landfill permit to Rappahannock County on Sept. 26, there was an almost audible sigh of relief from local officials.

The agreement with neighboring Culpeper, under which Rappahannock’s trash has been going to that county’s landfill, was to expire in four days, and Culpeper’s Board of Supervisors, which had already granted one extension, had said publicly “no more.” Rappahannock had already spent almost $500,000 on development of its new solid waste disposal facility — exclusive of the $140,000 purchase price for the 99 acre Stover tract — and if Culpeper closed its landfill gates to outside trash, the only alternative was hauling at $1,000 a day to a private landfill in Richmond, a route that would further strain an already groaning general fund.

But despite those circumstances and even with permit in hand, “it was very daring to go ahead with that landfill,” said Larry Silverman, environmental consultant for the citizens’ group opposing use of the Stover tract for solid waste disposal. “The permit is for two years,” Mr.! Silverman noted in a telephone interview this week. ‘Two years is nothing! Two years is enough to devalue the land, that’s all.”

Three weeks ago, Mr. Silverman reported, he and members of the citizens’ committee met in Richmond with representatives of the Division of Solid Waste Management, including director Cynthia Bailey, technical services chief Berry Wright and geologist Terry Bonine. Mr. Silverman said he left that meeting with the understanding a letter would be sent to Rappahannock’s Board of Supervisors “stating their reservations, as were expressed to us, regarding the suitablility of that site for a landfill.” According to the environmental consultant, both Mr. Bonine and Mr. Wright voiced doubts about the site, given the discovery of rock in the proposed fill areas.

A letter accompanying the landfill permit emphasizes that only 3.6 acres is approved for actual disposal area. “The cursory geological study necessitated by discovery of rock during site preparation construction appears to indicate that some areas of the 99-acre parcel may be less than desirable as disposal area,” the letter notes. “Future consideration of the 99-acre tract for permitting will require a more complete soils investigation to confirm the redesign of those suitable areas.”

The extent of those “suitable areas” seems to be one unanswered question.

Mr. Silverman, who was asked last week by the White House to write the section on solid waste for the President’s Council of Environmental Quality’s annual report, says the parts suitable for landfilling are far too restricted to justify the expense of developing a solid waste disposal facility.

In challenging the geotechnical work done by Joyce Engineering and the engineer’s estimates on cost, particularly in light of the rock discovered late in the process,