VWS Holdco Inc., the embattled owner of the now-shuttered Shoosmith Landfill in Virginia, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware federal court, citing more than $183 million in debt and a cascade of operational failures that pushed the waste firm into fiscal quicksand.
At the heart of the crisis? A former employee’s falsified reports on toxic wastewater that triggered a contract suspension and unleashed an elevenfold surge in treatment costs—an economic gut punch the company claims left it gasping for air.
Toxic Truth: Falsified Reports Ignite Financial Freefall
According to court filings submitted Sunday, VWS pointed the finger at a former staffer who allegedly doctored reports on landfill leachate, a hazardous liquid byproduct that trickles through waste. That misconduct led Chesterfield County, the local authority responsible for treating the leachate, to terminate its contract in July 2024, forcing VWS to seek private providers at staggering rates.
“The massive increase in costs for the removal and treatment of the effluent leachate without a corresponding increase in revenue has left the debtors in an impossible financial position,” said Steven F. Agran, the company’s chief restructuring officer, in a sworn declaration.
