Virginia Residents Score Big Win in Landfill Fight

By Willie Dodson

The former site of the Moss 3 coal preparation plant in the community of Cleveland, Virginia, is little more than a forgotten footprint of industry these days, but it was once the third-largest coal preparation plant in the world, and a lynchpin in Southwest Virginia’s economy. But earlier this year, plans were announced to transform the property into a solid waste dump. This provoked an outcry from local residents, and sparked a grassroots movement that would go on to stop the landfill in its tracks. 

“I live right across from Moss 3,” says Jennifer Chumbley, a former mayor of Cleveland. “My farm is across from Moss 3, and therefore it would be devastating to me and my farm, as well as my animals, for a potential landfill [to go in].”

Russell County Reclamation, the company that owns the Moss 3 property, had planned to fill a 280- acre area with just over 115 million cubic yards of solid waste, according to a 2022 analysis, obtained and published by Cardinal News. The end result would have been a mound topping out at 2,600 feet above sea level – about 600 feet above the immediately adjacent topography. The landfill was projected to receive 5,800 tons of garbage per day, 6 days a week, for approximately 38 years. 

“It would devastate our community,” said Amy Branson, a resident of nearby Castlewood, who expressed concerns that leachate from the landfill would pollute the Clinch River, undermine the eco-tourism infrastructure that the county and business owners have built in recent years, and discourage new residents and industry from locating in Russell County, while driving current residents to move away.

Last February, the Nova Company of Virginia began applying for the necessary permits to operate the landfill. While initially described as a “municipal” landfill on Russell County Reclamation’s website, word quickly got around that Nova planned to bring in trash from other states by truck and rail.

“It’s not just gonna be household trash, and it’s not going to be for the residents of Russell County,” said Branson. “This isn’t our landfill to just dispose of our county trash. It’s a landfill for other states – New York, Maryland.”

But on June 10, the proposal died as the Russell County Board of Supervisors terminated negotiations with Nova during a public meeting packed with local citizens present to express their opposition to the landfill.

“The board of supervisors did what they’re supposed to do and represented their constituents’ will,” says Kerry McCormack of Cleveland. “We’re absolutely thrilled that this project is killed.”

“This community has came together behind a single cause, no matter our differences,” Chumbley says. “As we’ve built this, the community has all stood with each other, and it’s healed our community in some ways because there was that divide.” 

Chumbley first heard “rumblings” about the landfill in the summer of 2023. She spoke with neighbors and friends about it, and found that many people had similar concerns regarding impacts to the environment, economy and people’s health in Cleveland and Russell County. Within weeks, an informal group had formed to oppose the landfill. They set up a Facebook page, which rapidly gained followers, and submitted a question about the proposal to a local candidate forum.

By June when the landfill proposal was canceled, the Facebook group had around 4,000 followers, yard signs reading, “Say No to the Moss 3 Landfill,” could be seen all over Southwest Virginia, and the issue had been covered in numerous media outlets. 

In addition to local residents’ concerns over health, economic and environmental impacts, the Moss 3 site is also uniquely important in Appalachian labor history. In 1989, the United Mine Workers of America peacefully took over and occupied the prep plant for four days, marking a turning point in the union’s successful strike against Pittston Coal Company. Many local residents were either involved in this strike directly, or they had relatives who were involved. The prospect of burying the land where these events took place under a mound of garbage was enough to rally the union to come out in opposition to the planned landfill in March of 2024.

“To even contemplate placing a landfill on this historic site is not only disrespectful to UMWA’s legacy and the labor movement but an outright travesty against the community that rallied during the strike to safeguard their families’ well-being,” said United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts in a statement.

“I really am super proud of our movement,” Amy Branson says. “We did not let it get us down that we were few in numbers. We didn’t let it get us down that we weren’t billionaires. We really just scratched and fought, and brought awareness to this so that the public is asking the board for transparency.”