Investigation · Shoosmith Landfill

Chesterfield's Shoosmith landfill is closed and bankrupt — and the cleanup bill could top $170 million

The municipal landfill off Lewis Road stopped taking waste in 2022 and its owners filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Now regulators, the county and a state senator are fighting over who pays to contain millions of gallons of leachate.

How we report this: the basic facts below — the closure, the bankruptcy, the DEQ violation, the dollar figures — are documented. Claims of misconduct are clearly labeled as allegations and attributed to the party that made them, alongside the owners’ denial. We name individuals only in their roles as company officers.

What: A closed municipal solid-waste landfill (DEQ Permit No. 587), now in bankruptcy with a multi-million-dollar cleanup shortfall.
Where: 11800 Lewis Road, Chester (Dale District), Chesterfield County, VA.
Who: Operated by Shoosmith Bros., Inc. under parent VWS Holdco, Inc. (a Texas-based investor group that bought the site in 2008 — not the founding family, and not Allied Waste or Republic Services).
When: Stopped accepting waste Dec. 30, 2022; owners filed Chapter 11 in June 2025, converted to Chapter 7 liquidation that July.

What happened

The Shoosmith Sanitary Landfill operated off Lewis Road from 1976. The founding Shoosmith family sold it in June 2008 to a Texas-based investor group that ran it as Shoosmith Bros., Inc., under a Delaware parent, VWS Holdco, Inc. In 2018, Chesterfield’s Board of Supervisors denied a proposed expansion (Cells 27–28), limiting how much longer the site could take waste. It stopped accepting waste on December 30, 2022.

A closed landfill is not a finished one. It keeps generating leachate — liquid that percolates through buried waste — which has to be collected and treated so it doesn’t reach groundwater or streams. According to court filings and reporting, Shoosmith’s leachate handling broke down: Chesterfield’s utilities department documented elevated ammonia at the Proctors Creek treatment plant between 2019 and 2023, and the county suspended the company’s discharge permit in 2024.

On June 1, 2025, VWS Holdco and Shoosmith Bros. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; within about 60 days the case converted to Chapter 7 liquidation. That left a closed, leaking landfill, an estimated $183 million in debt, almost no assets, and a court-appointed trustee in charge of a cleanup the company can no longer pay for.

By the numbers

~$19MClosure/post-closure bonds set aside.

$172M+Trustee engineer’s estimate to safely close and maintain the site for 30 years.

~50–65kGallons of leachate generated per day (figures vary by source; approximate).

~$90kReported weekly cost to haul leachate off-site.

$183MEstimated prepetition debt of the bankrupt owners.

Aug.Month lawmakers warn funds to maintain the site could run out (2026).

Figures from the bankruptcy trustee’s filings and local reporting (WTVR, WRIC, VPM); ranges are labeled approximate where sources differ.

What’s alleged — and by whom

The following are allegations made by named parties, several of them in active litigation. They are not proven facts. We pair them with the owners’ response.

Owners “pocketed millions of dollars” instead of investing in the site’s infrastructure and remediation.Alleged in court records filed by attorneys for Virginia DEQ

The company bypassed parts of its pretreatment system and submitted falsified records to conceal illegal discharges.Alleged by Chesterfield County

Insiders “may have criminal liability under Virginia law for abandoning the landfill without proper closure or adequate financial assurance.” (As of mid-2026, no source confirms a criminal investigation has been opened.)Argued in a filing by Chesterfield County’s lawyers

A potential “environmental catastrophe” driven by “years of extreme financial neglect.”Chapter 7 trustee Lynn Tavenner

A “preventable disaster” that could cost taxpayers roughly $173 million, with concerns that ran “deeper than expected” after meeting the trustee.Virginia state Sen. Glen Sturtevant, in a May 26, 2026 public letter

The owners deny wrongdoing. Their attorney, Christopher Jones, has said there was no breach of duty and “no proof or evidence of anything,” and the former owners dispute the allegations in court filings.

Who ran Shoosmith — and who’s left to pay

According to the bankruptcy filings, two people are identified as running the companies: Fred G. Nichols, listed as president of both Shoosmith Bros., Inc. and its parent, VWS Holdco, Inc., and Paul Lawrence “Larry” McGee, listed as vice president. Nichols is named as the companies’ “debtor designee” in the Chapter 7 case. The record shows no public chief executive, chief financial officer or independent board of directors. The operating company sits beneath a chain of privately held holding companies (VWS Holdco and VWS Acquisitions, LLC); their other owners — Environmental Services Management of Virginia, LLC and Volunteer Enterprises, LLC — do not list public officers beyond Nichols and McGee, who is also reported as a part-owner of those upstream entities.

So can they pay for it?

On paper, the companies cannot. In their bankruptcy petitions the debtor entities reported roughly $0 to $100,000 in assets against about $183 million in debt — essentially empty shells. The only money set aside specifically for the landfill is about $19 million in closure bonds, against a cleanup estimated at more than $172 million.

That leaves the question officials are actually fighting over: can anyone be made to pay personally? Virginia DEQ’s filings allege the owners “pocketed millions” instead of reinvesting — a claim the owners deny through their attorney. The Chapter 7 trustee, Lynn Tavenner, now controls the site and can pursue claims on creditors’ behalf, and the county has argued in a filing that the insiders could face liability for walking away. As of mid-2026 the public record shows no final answer — no confirmed recovery from the owners — and officials warn the shortfall could land on the state or taxpayers: the Commonwealth is weighing a takeover and roughly $50 million for an on-site treatment plant, while lawmakers warn the money to keep hauling leachate could run out as soon as August.

Leadership titles and asset figures are drawn from the companies’ bankruptcy filings; the “pocketed millions” characterization is an allegation by Virginia DEQ’s attorneys, disputed by the owners. Individuals are named only in their roles as company officers.

What it means for residents

Leachate from the site has reached local waterways: a Virginia DEQ Notice of Violation dated February 9, 2026 found a dark, leachate-like discharge into a channel leading to Swift Creek and Piney Branch, with outfall samples of suspended solids, ammonia and zinc above legal limits. Those creeks flow toward the Appomattox and James rivers.

On the question of drinking water, accounts differ and we report both: DEQ documented the creek-outfall exceedances above, while Midlothian District Supervisor Mark Miller has said the county’s water sources are not contaminated. We have not found independent testing of downstream drinking-water intakes; that remains an open question.

A structural issue runs underneath the story: in Virginia, DEQ alone has authority to inspect and enforce against landfills. The county says DEQ had just two inspectors for 80 facilities across the Piedmont region, and that when Chesterfield asked the state for joint enforcement authority in 2023, the Attorney General’s office declined. The state is now weighing whether to take over the site and build an on-site leachate treatment plant.

Timeline

1976 — Landfill begins operating under the founding Shoosmith family.
June 2008 — Family sells to a Texas-based investor group (Shoosmith Bros. / VWS Holdco).
2018 — County denies the proposed Cells 27–28 expansion.
2019–2023 — County records elevated ammonia at the Proctors Creek treatment plant.
Dec. 30, 2022 — Landfill stops accepting waste.
2023 — County’s request for joint enforcement authority is declined by the AG’s office.
2024 — County suspends Shoosmith’s leachate discharge permit.
June 1, 2025 — VWS Holdco & Shoosmith Bros. file Chapter 11 (Case No. 25-10979).
July 31, 2025 — Case converts to Chapter 7 liquidation; venue moves to E.D. Va.
Dec. 2025 — Leachate-like discharge into Swift Creek / Piney Branch observed.
Feb. 9, 2026 — DEQ issues a Notice of Violation (solids, ammonia, zinc exceedances).
May 2026 — Sen. Sturtevant’s letter; Board of Supervisors discusses a possible state takeover.

How to weigh in or report a concern

Chesterfield County (Community Enhancement): SWcompliance@chesterfield.gov · 804-748-1500.
Virginia DEQ holds enforcement authority over the site — report an environmental problem via deq.virginia.gov (Piedmont Regional Office).
Board of Supervisors: the landfill has been on the agenda — see meeting agendas and video on the county’s meetings page.
Got information we should see? Send a confidential tip.

Sources

Virginia DEQ — Notice of Violation (Feb. 9, 2026), and the Solid Waste Permit No. 587 records (official enforcement and permit documents).
Chesterfield County — official news release on the Shoosmith failures and the county’s enforcement-authority request.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court filings — In re VWS Holdco, Inc., et al., Case No. 25-10979 (D. Del. → E.D. Va.).
Local reporting — WTVR CBS 6, WRIC ABC 8News, and VPM News (June 2026 coverage).

This is an evolving story. Spotted an error or have documents? Tell us.