So what exactly is a “soil borrow”? It’s pretty much just like it sounds. A company buys land, then takes soil from that property and moves it to another one. Lunenburg supervisors signed off on a request from Meridian Waste to begin that process during their Thursday, July 10 meeting. 

The property in question is at 526 Locust Lane in Kenbridge, adjacent to the county landfill, which Meridian operates. And this request is connected to the landfill itself. 

Meridian wants to take soil from the 58 acre property on Locust Lane and transfer it to the landfill. Speaking to the board of supervisors on Thursday, Joe Gustaf said the company plans to leave the majority of the property alone. Gustaf works as director of landfill operations here in Lunenburg. 

“It literally is a borrow area, (this is) not a future expansion of the landfill,” Gustaf said. 

He also promised supervisors that Meridian would limit how far down they would dig to get the soil. As it stands, the plan would be to go down 30 feet at the deepest part of the dig. Also, any wetlands disturbed by the digging will be replaced by a ratio of 3 to 1. There will be bridges built over streams and creeks also, so as not to impact them. 

The company also agrees to stay on its own property. At no point will trucks carrying the soil cross over onto another property owner’s land. 

“We will not be crossing roadways or anything,” Gustaf said. “It will be coming off our property and staying on our property.” 

Soil borrow unanimously approved

There had really been no complaints about the request. Nobody showed up Thursday to speak at the public hearing, nor did they send in emails or any other opposition. Previously, the planning commission had recommended approval as well, with the only condition being that Meridian followed county rules, as well as all state and federal guidelines. Gustaf had no problem agreeing to those terms and supervisors saw no issue with the request. By a unanimous vote, supervisors approved the conditional use permit.