University of Virginia Library

Feasible Alternatives Need Time

of 100 truck trips for the city
alone per week," he added.

Mr. Iachetta's plan would
require an initial outlay of $2.5
million, but according to his
calculations, the city would
save $150,000 per year in the
cost of transportation to pay
for the bonds.

John Pollack,
environmental science graduate
student, is developing a second
alternative to the new landfill
site. He introduced the idea of
"a grinding mill located in
central Charlottesville. The
grinding mill would reduce the
volume of garbage to one truck
load per hour to the Ivy
landfill," Mr. Pollack said.

However, there are built-in
flaws with Mr. Pollack's plan.
He is concerned with resource
recovery and federal
regulations as they stand now
discourage the sale and
transportation of secondary
materials. In addition, there is
not a thriving market for
recovered goods.

Both of these alternatives
hinge upon the continued joint
use of the Ivy landfill site by
the city and county. Garbage
collection and disposal must go
on as it has in the past until
either of the alternative plans is
completed. This places a
tremendous strain on the
present access road to the site
and will very possibly require
the construction of a new road.

However, the larger benefits
from the realization of
alternative plans are very
tempting.

This is the one situation
where a carefully planned
delay could save the city and
county millions of dollars and
eliminate the need to being this
same search again in 10 years.