State lawmakers included $26.5 million in their two-year budget proposal to help the city of Bristol clean up its landfill.
“We are so thankful that that money has been included in the budget,” said Bristol Mayor Becky Nave. The city raised taxes and trash fees last year to pay for millions of dollars of remediation on their landfill.
“We’re putting in every dollar that we have,” Nave said. “And I think it was really eye opening, you know, in Richmond, that, look, ‘they’ve raised everything, they’ve got some of the highest rates in the state. And it’s time that we step in and help them.’”
Bristol’s landfill, originally built inside a rock quarry decades ago, has spewed noxious odors, due to elevated temperatures and poorly ventilated gas. Bristol was sued, twice, over the issue, and closed the landfill in 2022. They installed an odor mitigation system last year, and Nave said reports about the odor have gone down. They’re planning to install a seal over the entire landfill in the next few years.
The price tag to clean up the toxic site is estimated to cost at least $60 million. Nave said residents shouldn’t have to bear the full cost.
Governor Glenn Youngkin included $35 million for the landfill in his proposed budget back in December. During a listening session in Abingdon on March 20, Youngkin told the Bristol Herald Courier he thought the $26.5 million in the General Assembly’s proposed budget is “appropriate”.
Youngkin and state lawmakers haven't yet agreed on the final budget.
