New Megasite May Be In Store For Waste Collection

EL PASO, TX. -Residents whoregularly use local collection stations to get rid of yard waste and extra household garbage may be surprised to learn that city officials may be closing downsuchsites to make way for a central megastation.

Currently,there are six citizen collection sites around the citylocated on Hondo Pass in the Northeast, Harrison in Central, Atlantic at Doniphan on the Westside, one on San Paulo and another on Escobar both in the Lower Valley, and 4200 Delta in South Central El Paso. The city says most of those sites are set up in parking lots which means they don’t have the kind of security or traffic space necessary and having so many doesn’t make sense economically for the city.

So they want to consolidate them into one megasite and they’re considering the only site of the six that’s permitted by the state, 4200 Delta. There was a community meetingTuesday night to talk with people that live near the Delta site and get their opinion on the change. Residents had many concerns, like the extra traffic it would bring to their area and the flies. But city officials say the new site would be redesigned as a state of the art facility. It would be safe, clean and efficient.

“They were not designed for drop-offs, they were designedto be parking lots. So what I’m trying to do is, becauseit’s asafety issue, we’ve had a lot of accidents at these sites and also from economical issues to be able toconsolidate the drivers who takeall the material to the landfill. We’re looking at consolidating into one supersite,” said Ellen Smyth, the Director of Environmental Services for the city.

The city will hold another community meeting on the idea of a centralized siteWednesday evening at 6 p.m.on the Westside at the Doris van Doran Library at 551 Redd Road and the next is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Mission Valley Branch Library at 310 North Yarbrough.