The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection plans to assist the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority in that agency's effort to redevelop its recycling program.
DEP environmental advocate Wendy Radcliff said the state agency is looking at its discretionary funds "to see if there's any opportunities that we can be able to assist the county in receiving, purchasing equipment or doing what needs to be done on site to get an adequate program up and running."
"We see this as kind of an emergency need because of... the situation that the county was left in," Radcliff said.
Kanawha County's recycling program has been left in the lurch since last year, when George Hunyadi, owner of West Virginia Recycling Services, bailed on a joint agreement to operate the Slack Street recycling center. Hunyadi took most of the equipment with him and the building has since between torn down.
Drop-off recycling continues at the site, but Kanawha County and municipalities like Charleston that have relied on the facility have been transporting recyclables to the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority.
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman said the county's past challenges with operating a recycling program will have to be overcome.
"We were concerned about allocating state resources to an entity that has historically not been managed very well," Huffman said. "We have a commitment that they're going to change how they do business."
Huffman said the assistance could be as much as $500,000.
James Young, director of the Kanawha solid waste authority, said he plans to present a proposal to the DEP at the authority's meeting Tuesday. The solid waste authority has developed a five-year business plan for the pending new facility, at the DEP's request, and Young said the proposal outlines what the agency might ask for.
"I think that the DEP just wants to make sure that whatever funds they do give to us are going to be spent in a wise manner and we're not going to have problems in two years, shutting down," Young said.
Young would not give details on the proposal because the final draft has not yet been approved by the solid waste authority board. The authority plans to apply for a loan through the state's Solid Waste Management Board to build its new facility and focus on equipment in its DEP proposal, he said.
"Depending on the route that it would go, [the] DEP would keep a lien on the equipment," Radcliff said. "If it were a loan, they would not only have the loan but also a mechanism for repayment. There'd be oversight, auditing, that kind of stuff, in terms of money."
Radcliff said Kanawha County's situation is "unique" and any money that comes from the DEP likely would not be from its regular grant cycle.
"We recognize that, by helping out Kanawha County, other counties may be thinking, 'Oh we need to go and get a pot, some of that money,' " Radcliff said. "There may be a potential there, but that's not what we're doing right now. We're not just opening the floodgates for a whole new grant program."
The Kanawha solid waste board meets Tuesday at 10 a.m. at 600 Slack St., Charleston.
Reach Rachel Molenda at rachel.molenda@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5102 or follow @rachelmolenda on Twitter.