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The Cumberland Park fill site is the wrong project in the wrong place being pushed by the wrong organization. The project should be put on hold until serious questions about it and its owner -- the Giles County Partnerships for Excellence Foundation -- are answered.

The project is located in the 100-year flood plain of the New River, sits above an active fault line and is planned to be home to nearly 300,000 cubic yards of Appalachian Power Co.'s coal combustion waste (CCW or "fly ash").

Similar structural fill sites have contaminated streams in Pennsylvania and groundwater in Maryland, and one site in neighboring Roanoke County has even become a Superfund site.

Despite its sensitive location and a request by the Giles County Board of Supervisors, the developers will not agree to include safety measures that would be required if it were designated a landfill. A landfill must contain a liner and a groundwater monitoring system to help prevent groundwater contamination.

This project is designated a "beneficial end use," therefore it adheres to different rules.

Its supporters point out that the project has been approved by the Department of Environmental Quality, but DEQ's review procedures are minimal at best. They have no public comment, permitting or independent review.

Because of recent problems with the disposal of fly ash, the Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing regulations that would impose many more restrictions on using this material as structural fill. If allowed to proceed, Cumberland Park will slip under the wire to the detriment of the New and the citizens of Giles County.

Ironically, one of the stated purposes of the project is to benefit the county's schools. The partnership is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose primary exempt purpose is "educational enrichment," according to its tax forms. It claims it will sell Cumberland Park as commercial property (the "beneficial end use") and donate the proceeds of the sale to the Giles County Vocational School.

But the school board says it has nothing to do with the project or the partnership and maintains that there is no arrangement for the funds to go to the school system.

It is also worth questioning whether the property, which is currently zoned industrial, could even be rezoned commercial and whether any business would purchase a site perched in a flood plain atop a mound of hazardous fly ash that could create future environmental liabilities.

The partnership's recent behavior raises more questions than it answers. As a nonprofit organization, it is legally required to provide its tax returns and exemption application to members of the public upon request, yet it has repeatedly rebuffed in-person requests from multiple Giles County citizens since November.

The partnership must also be organized for charitable purposes and not for the benefit of private interests. But it is hard to conceive how providing a home for massive amounts of Appalachian's fly ash serves any such purposes.

The partnership appears to be violating state law applicable to public school foundations, which under Virginia law are supposed to implement only public school improvement projects approved by the local school board. The landfill itself serves no educational purpose, and the school board has in no way approved it.

Furthermore, as a public school foundation, the partnership is required to establish a system of accounting with the school board and establish terms for the allocation its profits. These requirements have not been satisfied, and there is no arrangement for the distribution of prospective funds from the project to the school system.

The citizens of Giles County are clearly getting a raw deal. This project will compromise human health and the environment. And despite claims from the partnership, this project will not benefit the schoolchildren and citizens of Giles County.

It is time for the citizens of the county and the New River Valley to stand up and demand accountability from the partnership, the school board, the board of supervisors and the relevant state agencies, including the State Corporation Commission, the Department of Taxation, the attorney general's office and DEQ.

The school board and the partnership should put a stop to this project and refocus their energies on the schools they are supposed to serve.

For more information on how you can join or support the fight against this ill-advised project, go to concernedgilescitizens.org.

Daniel Shean is a University of Virginia law student assisting Concerned Citizens of Giles County. The Stoudenmires live in the county and own Canoe the New Outfitters in Pearisburg.