McDowell County Still Banking On $24m Landfill

A Virginia company will open a 175-acre landfill in McDowell County for in-county customers Oct. 2, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports.

But in-state trash is not why EnviroSolutions Inc. spent an estimated $24 million on the facility.

The company's quest to accept out-of-state waste by rail foundered earlier this year, when the Legislature failed to act on its bill allowing the landfill to accept more than 50,000 tons of trash per month.

A pair of lobbyists methodically worked the state Senate through most of the 60-day session to ensure passage by that body - only to hit a wall in the House of Delegates with just days remaining in the session.

A House public hearing that drew critics of the proposal, and raised questions about whether the landfill would ease the county's trash problems, signaled the legislation's defeat.