It’s not quite an uprising of Egyptian proportions, but the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce seems pretty ticked.
Covanta Fairfax Inc. — a private company — has been operating a trash incinerator in the Lorton area for more than 20 years. Prices have been reasonable, and there have been no major disasters to speak of. Even the neighbors seem not to mind its presence, which is a considerable feat for a place that burns garbage.
But now, County Executive Anthony Griffin’s proposal at the urging of his staff to purchase the $417 million incinerator, instead of allowing Covanta to continue doing the job its done, has the Chamber rallying its troops in the form of a Coalition in Opposition to County’s Purchase.
The staff’s “priorities are misplaced in recommending spending hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase a trash incinerator at a time when our economy remains weak and many core government services have been reduced or eliminated,” said a rallying cry from the Chamber.
The Board of Supervisors have scheduled a public hearing concerning the purchase for Feb. 22. The decision to purchase or not must be made by the supervisors by early March.
