A state-ordered report on the bankrupt Shoosmith Landfill in Chesterfield County is weeks overdue, and Governor Abigail Spanberger's office is refusing to release a draft of it, citing an exemption for gubernatorial working papers. The Virginia General Assembly required the report through the state budget and expected it by October 5, but it remains under review nearly a month past that deadline.
The holdup matters because the report could provide new information about the risks the shuttered landfill poses and what it will take to close it, according to WTVR CBS 6, which filed a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request with Spanberger's office seeking the document. The governor's office identified one responsive document but withheld it in its entirety, describing it only as draft materials and citing Virginia Code § 2.2-3705.7(2), a provision that excludes from mandatory disclosure working papers and correspondence of the Office of the Governor and certain other listed officials, according to Virginia law.
Grayson Shultz, executive assistant and program manager for natural and historic resources in the governor's office, said the requested report remains under review and is not yet final. He told CBS 6 the final report will go out to requesting news organizations once he receives permission to release it.
A Landfill Already in Financial and Environmental Trouble
Shoosmith Landfill is bankrupt, and its bankruptcy trustee has described the facility as a potential environmental catastrophe. Delegate Mike Cherry, who represents Colonial Heights and part of Chesterfield County including the area surrounding the landfill, said some of his constituents live in homes that back up to the site.
“Every day that ticks by is a potential for there to be, you know, something happen that we really don't want to happen in our community,” Cherry said, according to the station's report. He said he wants to see the report's findings and has asked the administration to release it and inform the community, though he acknowledged he does not know whether the delayed report will confirm residents' concerns or help ease them. “I think facts are what help us mitigate that propensity to always look to the worst that could happen,” Cherry said.
The site's troubles trace back years. Virginia Department of Environmental Quality records documented landfill gas condensate discharging into Swift Creek in June 2021, with samples from a receiving stream showing elevated BOD-5 and ammonia levels, according to the same account. Shoosmith filed for bankruptcy after that 2021 discharge, and DEQ records documented repeated leachate seeps in the years that followed — including incidents in November 2021 and June and July 2022.
Years of Violations and a Short-Lived Fix
DEQ entered a consent order with Shoosmith in February 2023 requiring a compliance schedule and a $62,300 payment to the state; an October 2023 audit found the landfill had satisfied those requirements and closed the order, per the same reporting. But DEQ issued another notice of violation in November 2024 after identifying more leachate seeps and releases, and again in February 2026, after dark liquid resembling leachate was observed discharging toward a conveyance leading to Swift Creek and Piney Branch.
Accounts differ on exactly when Shoosmith stopped taking waste — one report places it in 2022, another says the landfill lost its permit and stopped operating in 2024, and a separate account puts the cutoff in February 2025. The timing of the bankruptcy filing is similarly disputed, with one report citing June 2025 and another citing a Chapter 7 filing in July 2025. DEQ has said the landfill is no longer accepting waste and is preparing for closure, and that current leachate is being hauled off-site for treatment.
Jamie Brunkow said the landfill's impact on nearby waterways warrants outrage, noting that the Swift Creek area waterways are used for both recreation and drinking water. Morton Barlaz, an NC State University professor who has researched solid waste for more than four decades, said condensate chemical concentrations run much higher than those in leachate and that discharging it into a creek is unacceptable.
Who Pays the Bill?
The price tag for fixing the site is steep by any measure. An engineering group working for the bankruptcy trustee estimated that closure, corrective measures and 30 years of post-closure care could cost more than $172 million, while other estimates put the figure closer to $173 million with cleanup potentially stretching up to three decades, according to WRIC. Available bond funds for the landfill total only slightly more than $19 million.
A federal bankruptcy judge recently ordered companies connected to the Shoosmith bankruptcy to turn over financial records to trustee Lynn Tavenner, who is examining transfers tied to the landfill's former owners. The judge was careful to note that the court has not determined whether the alleged transfers occurred or whether any transfer was improper.
Bob Olsen said citizens are left bearing the burden of the landfill plan, a sentiment that echoes the frustration voiced by Cherry and other residents watching the state's cleanup response unfold. For now, families near the site are left waiting on a report that was due weeks ago, with no public timeline for when — or in what form — it will finally surface.
