We were — and are — in support of the county’s decision to revisit a decision to site a solid-waste transfer station at the current landfill on Eubanks Road. But there are still concerns as the new process to select a site gets started.
As many of you are aware, when the landfill fills up within the next three years or so, the transfer station takes over. Each week, your garbage will be hauled to the station and, by the end of the day, transported to parts as yet unknown.
The county has hired a consulting firm, Olver Inc., to assist it in determining the best location for the transfer station. The plan is that by the time the Orange County Board of Commissioners recesses for the summer, Olver will have recommended a short list of potential sites. Next fall, the board is scheduled to select the best among them.
Exclusionary criteria — that is, criteria that right off the bat exclude certain locations, including watersheds, protected plant and animal habitats and sites with historical or cultural significance — were recently established.
Next up for consideration will be technical criteria — such as traffic compatibility and access to utilities — and community-specific criteria — a category that includes environmental-justice considerations.
And that’s where we’re concerned.
Among the uncertainties of this selection process is the precise timing of these additional criteria. Specifically, a flow chart provided at a March 18 work session suggests that only after the list of potential sites has been narrowed to a selection of final candidate sites will the community-specific criteria be evaluated.
But what if none of the potential sites left on that short list looks like an entirely justifiable one when scrutinized under community-specific criteria? What then?
There are now indications that the county and its consultant will consider both the technical and community-specific criteria before narrowing the list. But that remains uncertain. The next transfer station work session is this coming Monday at 7:30 p.m.
What is certainly true to many observers of this process is that the current location of the landfill, on Eubanks Road, should be excluded from consideration as a potential site of a transfer station. As The Citizen chronicled in its series on environmental justice (www.carrborocitizen.com/main/rogers-road), the Eubanks-Rogers roads community has done more than its share for the broader community in enduring the landfill for more than 35 years. The county should recognize that and assure the Eubanks-Rogers community that the transfer station will be sited elsewhere.
Further, full consideration of the effects of a solid-waste facility on a community must be honored throughout this process.