Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

County ends look for alternatives, focuses on Bingham waste transfer site

Posted on April 23, 2009 by Staff

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

The Orange County Board of Commissioners ended their pursuit of alternatives to a solid-waste transfer station, including the possibility of a temporary facility at the Eubanks Road landfill, and set in motion further study of a site on N.C. 54 north of Orange Grove Road with an aim at siting the station there.

The alternatives were part of a “parallel track” the commissioners agreed to pursue to see if a waste-to-energy plant, use of landfills in other counties or regional partnerships might be feasible.

The decision came at a board meeting Tuesday night at the Southern Human Services Center after the presentation of an analysis of the alternatives by Orange County solid-waste director Gayle Wilson and after residents of the Rogers-Eubanks roads neighborhood and Bingham Township pled their respective cases.

Wilson said converting waste to energy might be a good long-term solution at some point, but that both the costs and concerns about emissions would be difficult hurdles. Orange County does not produce enough waste to make the project cost effective, he said, and would likely have to import garbage.

Wilson said he did not find a likely partner in such a facility after discussions with officials in nearby counties. Simply trucking garbage to public and private landfills in Durham and Research Triangle Park were also ruled out, he said, because of the cost of transport and tipping fees.

Wilson said other contingencies for what to do to prevent a situation where the landfill is closed and no transfer station is open include limiting use of the landfill only to the municipalities and the county and, as a last resort, diverting all of the county’s waste to an out-of-county landfill or transfer station until a new facility is open.

Wilson also reported that recent work at the Eubanks Road landfill, the use of a new compactor and asking the university to take its trash elsewhere has likely extended the landfill’s capacity by about one year. It had been expected to be full by 2011.

The prospect that the Eubanks Road landfill might be a site for a temporary station brought out supporters of the Roger-Eubanks community’s effort to end its 37-year run as host community for Orange County’s trash.

Nancie McDermott said that while she understands that the commissioners are under pressure, continuing to use the current landfill site was a “new version of an old, bad wrong.”
“Rogers Road has done its time in hell for 37 years,” she said.

Rev. Robert Campbell said he did not trust that a temporary facility at the landfill would not somehow turn out to be permanent. He recalled that before the landfill opened, officials said it would only be open for 10 years and then would be converted to a park.

Bingham Township residents lined up to ask the county to reconsider its decision to pursue a 147-acre tract off N.C. 54 near Piedmont Feed & Seeds.

Laura Streitfeld, an organizer with Preserve Rural Orange, said the county has not thoroughly studied the environmental concerns with the site, including that it would affect nearby Collins Creek and the Haw River basin.

Bonnie Hauser, an organizer with Orange County Voice, another group opposed to the transfer station, said the county is underestimating the costs of the facility. She noted that the board had a recent problem with cost overruns with a project in Hillsborough, then added: “That’s nothing compared to where you’re heading on this waste transfer station.”

Hauser said she also thinks there are significant environmental problems with the site and asked the county to stop work on the Bingham site and look for a site closer to the towns that already has utility service.

Albert Vickers, a member of the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Board, said he agreed that a waste transfer station was needed, but disagreed with using the Bingham site.

“You need a transfer station,” he told commissioners, “but you need one that makes sense.”

After the comments, Commissioner Mike Nelson said he would like to take a temporary facility at Eubanks Road off the table to give the Rogers Road residents a clear indication that they would one day see an end to their struggle.

“This issue has clearly divided this community,” he said. “Part of leadership is knowing when to put a period at the end of a sentence.”

Recently elected commissioners Bernadette Pelissier and Pam Hemminger said they wanted to see more environmental study done before moving ahead on the Bingham site. They asked for another work session to sort out the details and to meet with representatives of the towns on the facility.

Commissioner Barry Jacobs suggested that the county perform a more detailed environmental analysis of the site, saying it is something they would require a developer to do, and asked that the county begin discussions with the Orange Grove Volunteer Fire Department on fire protection at the site, which is not connected to OWASA’s water and sewer system. Jacobs said the county should be prepared to help cover the fire department’s costs.

Jacobs also said that past experiences trying to engage the towns were not productive.

“The towns are not intent on working with us,” he said. “They think we’re stuck with this, and we are.”

Steve Yuhasz also agreed that the time had come to end the look for alternatives and concentrate on the site chosen on N.C. 54 to see if it is suitable.

“I think the parallel track has reached its endpoint,” he said.
Chair Valerie Foushee agreed.

“To continue to drag this out is very unfair to the Rogers Road-Eubanks community,” she said.

Foushee said she also thought another conversation with officials from the towns would not be productive.

“I don’t think we should waste any more time to entice them to help us make a decision that is clearly ours to make,” she said.

The board unanimously approved removing the possibility of using the Eubanks Road landfill as a temporary site and authorized county officials to move forward with an extensive environmental study of the N.C. 54 site. They also approved hiring the law firm of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice to assist the county with any litigation that might result.

Orange County Voice officials have already indicated they may sue the county over its decision to pick the Bingham site.

1 thought on “County ends look for alternatives, focuses on Bingham waste transfer site”

  1. Virginia Leslie says:
    April 24, 2009 at 6:36 am

    Unfortunately, information given about parallel tracks at the meeting was not accurate.

    I was present as waste-to-energy (WTE) vendors presented the facts to the OC solid waste operations. WTE is available now with cooperative work, and emissions are simply an old story, no longer true. One fireworks show emits more dioxins into the air than 120 years of an active WTE plant.

    And county consultants altered figures in their calculations to compare use of vendors as a short term option.

    I do appreciate that the board is looking into the serious environmental hazards of placing the facility in the Haw watershed on NC54, on active wetlands and streams with potential protected and endangered species. That was exclusionary criteria. It will also cost every township and county citizen more tax money to haul out to the distant county, for many years to come.

    This industrial facility belongs near trash generation, water and sewer, real highways and hopefully rail for future options –not next to farms and rural homes. We need a good decision, not a fast one.

Comments are closed.

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme