By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
As the 2013 closure of the Orange County Landfill nears, a number of ideas are floating around as to how the county and its towns should proceed on solid-waste management, but one thing remains clear: There is no simple solution.
In October, the county commissioners set into motion a plan to close the landfill in June 2013, choosing not to pursue an option that could further extend its operation. At the same meeting, the board voted to develop a plan to provide water hookups in the Rogers Road neighborhood adjacent to the landfill and authorize the cleanup of illegal dumpsites in the community, funding the plan with an increase in solid-waste tipping fees.
The closure of the landfill would effectively end the need for the inter-local agreement put in place when Orange County took over management of the landfill in 2000, and tonight at 7, the Orange County Board of Commissioners will come together with the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, Chapel Hill Town Council and the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners to discuss how to move forward as the closure of the landfill approaches.
In anticipation of the impending closure, the county commissioners in 2007 voted to site a transfer station at the Eubanks Road landfill, later reversing that decision after hearing strong opposition from the community.
The county reopened the search for a site that fall, but in December 2009 the commissioners voted not to site a transfer station in the county, instead deciding to contract with Durham County to ship garbage to its transfer station for a three- to five-year period and to use that time to re-engage the county’s municipalities in developing a long-term solid-waste strategy.
“This issue has been going on for a number of years,†County Manager Frank Clifton said, noting the extensive search process the county conducted. “There was no location that they could find in Orange County that anybody felt suitable with moving forward.â€
Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton recently suggested a plan that calls for the county to keep the landfill open until 2015, allowing time for the county to site a waste transfer station. Chilton identified a possible site at the northwest corner of the intersection of I-40 and N.C. 86, and on Tuesday the Carrboro Board of Aldermen unanimously passed a resolution to ask the county to look into the feasibility of that site.
Chilton noted the high cost of hauling waste to Durham – an estimated $500,000-$600,000 for Chapel Hill and $200,000 for Carrboro, annually – and the environmental impact of the extra miles driven in stating the importance of quickly siting a transfer station within Orange County.
“What would it say about our communities’ priorities to choose to simply pay $750,000 a year to take our trash to Durham?†Chilton said, adding that the money saved could be used to fund additional infrastructure in the Rogers Road neighborhood, like sewer hookups and a community center.
However, Chilton’s suggestion that the county keep the landfill open for an additional two years has drawn strong opposition from the Rogers Road community and supporters who say it’s time the county and towns keep their promises to the neighborhood and close the landfill.
“Our good mayor from Carrboro talks about how well he knows solid waste. He doesn’t know the impact. He doesn’t breathe the polluted air,†said Robert Campbell, president of the local chapter of the NAACP and a longtime Rogers Road resident and activist. “It’s time to do the right thing – the moral, just, right thing. The quality of life in Rogers Road is at stake.â€
Chapel Hill is already looking into other waste-management options, including partnering with UNC and/or Carrboro as well as possible waste-to-energy options, and has put out a request for proposals from firms.
“We would like to make [the landfill closure] an opportunity to rethink our garbage,†Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil said.
However, Stancil said that in terms of waste to energy, “The technology is just not where we need for it to be at this point to put something on the ground.â€
Meanwhile, Clifton said it will be important for the various boards to come together to reach some kind of a decision moving forward.
“We’ve had many, many years to address this issue, and it’s not that it’s an easy issue to address, but it’s not going to get any easier,†he said.
TIMELINE OF TRASH
The history of the Eubanks Road landfill
1972: The town of Chapel Hill purchases land just north of town on Eubanks Road in order to place on it a solid-waste landfill. The residents – mostly black, and with family histories of having worked and lived upon the land in this community for many generations – are told this will be the only landfill placed in their neighborhood and that in 10 years it will be covered and become a park.
1997: Public officials promise to make enhancements to the Rogers Road community.
2000: Orange County takes over management of the landfill from Chapel Hill.
2006: Waste production in Orange County is down 47.7 percent from 1991, extending the landfill’s life beyond previous estimates.
March 2007: The Orange County Board of Commissioners votes unanimously to build a solid-waste transfer station at the site of the landfill, anticipating that the landfill will reach capacity in 2010.
November 2007: Residents of the community – led by the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition to End Environmental Racism – have alleged environmental racism, saying 35 years of a landfill is enough of a burden for one community to bear, and have demanded the search be reopened. The commissioners reopen the search for a solid-waste transfer station.
2008: After a year-long search for a solid-waste transfer station, the commissioners approve a site on N.C. 54 across from the intersection with Morrow Mill Road.
May 2009: Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy suggests a Chapel Hill-owned location on Millhouse Road north of the new Town Operations Center – a mile to the southwest of Rogers-Eubanks – as a possible alternative to the N.C. 54 site for the transfer station.
October 2009: The Chapel Hill Town Council puts an end to months of speculation about whether the town might provide a site it owns on Millhouse Road for a new waste transfer station by rejecting a plan to look at the feasibility of the site.
December 2009: The commissioners vote to have the county ship its garbage to Durham County’s transfer station.
May 2011: The commissioners vote to create a special fund to help pay for community projects in the Rogers Road area, with monies accrued through a $5 surcharge on every ton of waste that trucks dump at the landfill.
October 2011: The commissioners vote not to pursue extending the life of the landfill and to declare an intent to close it in 2013. County solid-waste staff had determined that the life of the landfill could be extended until as late as 2018.
Why not just keep the dump where it is? Put a transfer station there. 40 and 86? Isn’t that right near Timberline? That doesn’t seem like a good place to put it. Neither does putting it right at the doorstep of Hillsborough, which is what the Carrboro/Chapel Hill contingent tried to push last time.
If we’re not going to keep it where it is currently, then just ship it to Durham.