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County solid waste plans moving forward

Posted on March 19, 2009March 19, 2009 by Staff

Orange County Solid Waste Services director Gayle Wilson listens to a question at a meeting last Sunday of Preserve Rural Orange at the White Cross Recreation Center.

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Although the fervor of opposition to a solid-waste transfer station proposed for southwestern Orange County has not waned, the tone at a recent meeting on the matter was low key as residents peppered the county’s top solid-waste management official with questions on the plans.

Gayle Wilson, Orange County Solid Waste Management director, fielded questions from about 40 residents for about an hour Sunday evening at the White Cross Recreation Center. The informational meeting, called by members of Preserve Rural Orange, offered Wilson the opportunity to explain the progression of decisions made in the 1990s — including the abandonment of an effort to find a new landfill within the county — and how they presaged plans for a waste transfer station.

Asked by resident Wes Lachot why the county, which has been so proactive about recycling and waste reduction, settled on a plan that would send its waste to another community, Wilson was blunt. The political will to site a landfill in the county was not there, he said. Given the response to

the transfer station, he said, you can imagine the response if the land being studied for the waste station — at one time on the list of possible sites for a landfill — had been proposed as a new landfill site.

Wilson also assured residents that the county could control how its contractors would truck the waste out of county once it had been loaded on semi trucks. He said a rumor that the trucks would use Orange Grove Road to get to I-40 was not true. He did acknowledge that the Town of Hillsborough would likely use Orange Grove Road, but noted that they are the smallest municipal user of the landfill and would send no more than three trucks per day to the facility.

Prior to Wilson’s Q&A, organizers for Preserve Rural Orange outlined their efforts to convince commissioners to change their minds about locating the waste transfer station on a 147-acre parcel just off N.C. 54 west of Orange Grove Road. An adjacent parcel, owned by the Orange Water and Sewer Authority, was picked by the county as an alternative site.

Laura Streitfeld said her recent trip with commissioners and county officials to a waste transfer station in Greensboro had not convinced her that a similar facility would work in the White Cross area.

The Greensboro facility was located in an industrial area surrounded by oil tanks. “It didn’t change my mind on how it would fit in our community,” she said.

Streitfeld said Preserve Rural Orange is asking for the commissioners to “take a step back” and create an interim plan that would give the county more time to study what to do with its garbage. She also noted that members of Orange County Voice, another organization opposed to the waste transfer station site, continue to raise funds for possible litigation aimed at stopping the facility.
In an interview Wednesday with The Citizen, Wilson said he expects to have more information on proposals that are part of a parallel track created by the commissioners at the urging of residents to study alternatives to a county-operated solid-waste facility.

Wilson said that at a special meeting March 31 of the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Board, a report will be presented that looks into the cost of having commercial firms haul garbage to existing waste transfer stations in Research Triangle Park and in the City of Durham near Club Boulevard.

On April 2, the advisory board will meet again to review a cost analysis for alternative technologies for eliminating waste, such as incineration.

A report on the alternatives along with assessments on the N.C. 54 waste transfer sites and an updated cost projection for a new facility are scheduled to be presented to the board of county commissioners on April 21.

Wilson said he also plans to update commissioners on discussions with other counties and the City of Durham about a regional solution for garbage.

But after preliminary discussions, Wilson said he has not found anyone eager to study a joint project. So far, he said, no one is willing to consider new technologies, such as high-temperature incineration or a waste-to-energy facility.

1 thought on “County solid waste plans moving forward”

  1. Kat says:
    March 21, 2009 at 7:55 am

    I am heartily opposed to this absurd proposal – on many levels. I would like to address one facet of the numerous issues.

    Although there is much speak of keeping heavy truck traffic corralled, I beg to differ that traffic can be successfully routed. Based on current issues associated with lack of control,in general, of heavy truck traffic in Bingham Township:

    “…He said a rumor that the trucks would use Orange Grove Road to get to I-40 was not true…”

    I offer:

    I see no way any agency can “control” the route of trucks. The Bingham Township, where I reside, already has too much heavy truck traffic that ‘sneaks’ through to avoid the weigh-stations on I-40/85 at Efland. Truckers will exit
    I-40 at New Hope Church Road, to Arthur Minnis, travel across Orange Grove Road then onward to Buckhorn Road, where they will connect with I-40/85. Many of them arrive from Buckhorn and take Orange Grove to connect to I-85 in Hillsborough. I call 911 and report them every time I see them – yet because they continue to cut-through, that is a large flashing neon sign to me indicating no one is putting out warnings to truckers of circumstances they will experience should they take an off-route roadway. This alone shows me Orange County is NOT prepared to address this ONE issue of unapproved routing. Additionally it shows me this issue is of NO importance to anyone other than those of us who live in this area.

    Thank you
    Kat
    Orange County
    Bingham Township

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