Escambia County Utilities Authority (ECUA) is proposing plans for a new solid waste transfer station off Pine Forest Road in Pensacola, but some folks who live in the area don’t want it. It’s one of two projects proposed for the Bellview area that have raised questions and concerns about the possible environmental impact on the community.
The other project is a proposed plan to reclaim a permitted borrow pit on Bankhead Road and use it to dispose of vegetative debris.
Escambia District 1 Commissioner Steve Stroberger held a town hall meeting on June 16 to discuss the projects with the community.
ECUA’s new solid waste transfer project is currently in the permitting phase and has not yet been approved by Escambia County.
The proposed plans for the borrow pit must also be approved by the county.
ECUA’s plans for new transfer station
ECUA says the new $15 million facility would be built on property it owns on Godwin Lane, but with a new entrance off Pine Forest Road.
The goal with the project is to increase contingency capacity and reduce long-distance travel for garbage trucks.
Smaller trucks would unload at the new facility where the waste would be compacted and loaded into larger semi-trucks, which would then carry it to the landfill.
“It would be a place to take solid waste rather than going all the way out to the landfill with trucks that service the southern portions of the county,” ECUA Public Information Specialist Davis Woods said.
Proposed plans also include an enclosed building design for noise and odor control, as well as a 4.5-acre woodland buffer and a 150-foot vegetative buffer.
“By design, it provides more odor control,” ECUA Director of Engineering Stacy Hayden said. “Right now, we have to store the trucks on site. Because the transfer facility closes down, we have nowhere to store to take all that garbage, and that garbage has to sit in the truck outside of the existing facility with the transfer station. These trucks can be taken inside the building. They can be compacted and go into an enclosed container. The doors can be closed, and then it helps to mitigate the odors.”
The new facility would also provide transfer capabilities for recyclable materials, which currently go directly into the landfill.
ECUA says the new transfer station’s design is cleaner and safer for workers and strengthens the utility’s ability to process waste quickly after storms and hurricanes.
Stroberger does not support the location for ECUA’s new solid waste facility.
“I’m not for it,” Stroberger said. “Nobody wants this in their neighborhood.”
Some residents voiced concerns about issues like odor, increased truck traffic, and the impact it would have on property values.
“My most important question is, everything I’ve read researching this is that even a state-of-the-art finest transfer station will reduce my home’s value by up to 20%,” one man said. “Now are you or the county going to compensate me that for not just today’s value, but five years from now or 10 years from now?”
ECUA representatives said property values won’t be impacted because there’s already a sanitation facility on the property and the new one would be an improvement.
In 2022, ECUA implemented a $1 rate increase to customer bills to fund the project, with full funding expected by 2043.
ECUA stated it has had 0% operational increase in its sanitation budget for the last two years, besides cost-of-living adjustments for employees.
Currently, $3 million in state grant funding has been secured for the project. If the project does not move forward, this grant funding would be lost.
‘Air burner’ technology proposed for Bankhead Pit
Some residents also had questions and concerns about a proposed reclamation plan for an already existing excavated borrow pit on Bankhead Drive.
Instead of continuing to bury yard waste and vegetative debris at the site, Chavers Construction says it aims to transform the borrow pit into a clean, stable and potentially useful piece of property by using “state-of-the-art air burner technology” to more efficiently process and dispose of trees, branches, untreated wood and land clearing debris.
A representative for Chavers Construction, attorney Meredith Bush, discussed how the technology would work.
“This is recognized as the best available control technology under the U.S. Clean Air Act,” Bush said. “That’s the most advanced achievable method to control air pollution with this type of processing.”
She said an engineered air curtain controls the combustion zone and sharply reduces smoke compared to open burning, which means less hauling and no visible smoke.
The site will not accept construction/demolition debris, household garbage or hazardous waste at the site.
Several citizens were skeptical about the proposed changes at the Bankhead Pit.
“So why not just continue with what they’re doing and burying the live vegetation?” one person asked.
The response is that the “air burner” technology is more efficient, can lead to more intake than burying the debris, and creates a more stable property for the future.
There is also a proposal to revert zoning for the property from mixed-use suburban (25 homes/acre) to agricultural residential (1 house/4 acres), which would significantly limit future development.
Chavers said the long-term goal is to convert the filled and stabilized property into a community asset, like a park with walking trails, and potentially deed it to the county.
Some support that idea.
“I would rather see the burn facility instead of them just coming in and filling it in and building a subdivision on top of it,” one woman said. “At least with this, if what you say is true, they are promising a green space, so I’m for it.”
Stroberger said he supports the idea of incinerating the vegetative debris once all questions about the safety of the process are answers. He also thinks Chavers’ proposal of donating the land to Escambia County once the pit is filled and covered is a win.
“One of the very first things they brought up to me was they would deed that property to the county. I think that was a kind of a good deal to do that,” Stroberger said. “And incinerating all of that is efficient. It is probably better to fill that than just putting everything in there.”
Mollye Barrows is the Escambia County Government Impact Reporter at the Pensacola News Journal. She can be reached at mbarrows@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Escambia waste plans spark concerns over impact, property values
Reporting by Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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By Mollye Barrows, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
