By Catherine Rierson
Staff Writer
Nearing the end of a year-long search for a solid-waste transfer station, the Orange County Board of Commissioners decided on a list of three potential sites for the station at a work session Tuesday night. All three sites are located on a western corridor of Hwy. 54.
The other seven potential sites were removed from the initial list of 10, including the Rogers-Eubanks community in Chapel Hill, which has accommodated Orange County’s solid-waste landfill for the past 36 years.
The board first heard from Bob Sallach of consultant Olver Inc., who explained the process by which Olver applied community-specific criteria to the list of 10 potential sites that were presented to the board on Sept. 16. The board then made its decision to narrow the list to three based on consideration of the community-specific criteria – which include environmental-justice concerns – along with the two criteria sets already applied: exclusionary criteria, which rejected sites with or near wetlands and floodplains, for example; and technical criteria, which considered engineering logistics.
Forty-five people signed up to address the board during a scheduled public comment period Tuesday evening, but time only allowed for six speakers before the work session had to be adjourned to begin the board’s regular meeting.
But the board consistently emphasized the value of the public’s role in the decision-making process. Chairman Barry Jacobs stressed that opportunities for additional public input were planned.
Jacobs said he wants future decisions to be made as transparently as they were at
Tuesday’s work session.
“Believe me, there was no previous agreement before this session,†he said.
The substantially thinned list is in harmony with the timeline created last June, but it’s very doubtful the final decision will be made by the initial target date, Nov. 18. Jacobs said the selection is under tight time constraints with the landfill on Eubanks Road expected to reach capacity by2011, the still pending site selection and then the lengthy permitting and construction required for it.
He said the board would nonetheless take its time in making the right decision, but Commissioner Alice Gordon recommended the process be expedited.
“I’m actually troubled we haven’t made the decision,†Gordon said. “I’m quite concerned the landfill will close before we finish the transfer station. Trash will just pile up…. I don’t know where we’ll put it.â€
Work sessions concerned with the placement of the new waste transfer station have consistently drawn a crowd beyond the room’s capacity, and Tuesday night was no exception.
Before the session was adjourned, Jacobs encouraged the crowd to continue paying attention even if their community had been dropped from the list as a potential site. If something didn’t work out with the current top three sites, he said, the list would be revisited.
“You’d be very wise – and you’re always wise – but you’d be very wise to stay engaged.â€
Waste transfer site list narrowed to three….
Nice headline but you never said where they are? Why not?
Seems like that would be critical to your article!