
{"id":18264,"date":"2011-05-19T12:14:21","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T16:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=18264"},"modified":"2011-05-19T12:14:21","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T16:14:21","slug":"landfill-mitigation-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/05\/19\/landfill-mitigation-approved\/","title":{"rendered":"Landfill mitigation approved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Joshua Lucas<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to create a special fund to help pay for community projects in the Rogers Road area, near the county-maintained landfill some residents say has been the cause of noxious fumes, illegal offsite dumping and other community woes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are here to right the wrongs of 40 years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Robert Campbell, a Rogers Road community activist, one of several to offer limited support for the proposal. The activists urged the commissioners to pursue extending water and sewer service to the community, and some questioned whether the allocation would be enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean to be dismissive,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UNC epidemiologist and activist Chris Heaney said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[But] this proposal overlooks tipping fees accrued over 40 years.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>The fund would begin with a $750,000 allocation, with monies accrued through a $5 surcharge on every ton of waste that trucks dump at the landfill. The commissioners approved that surcharge Tuesday along with the initial allocation.<\/p>\n<p>The Town of Chapel Hill opened the landfill in 1972, but it is now owned by the county. At the time the site opened, some politicians told community members the site would close within a decade. County leaders have extended the life of the site several times and are considering doing so again.<\/p>\n<p>The board Tuesday opted not to consider the longest-term extension possible for the landfill, effectively setting in place a plan to close the landfill within about three and a half years.<\/p>\n<p>But commissioners rejected a proposal by County Manager Frank Clifton to create an independent panel to set priorities for the new fund\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spending. The board of commissioners, members said, can set those priorities itself based on several decades\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 worth of community recommendations.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the landfill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, politicians from the county and towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro have asked each other to share a greater portion of the responsibility for helping the Rogers Road community. Commissioners didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t break that pattern Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The towns have an equal moral authority on this,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.  <\/p>\n<p>However, Commissioner Valerie Foushee said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s place to tell Chapel Hill and Carrboro what to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If this board does what it believes is right to do, others will do the same,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.  \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The towns have an obligation to step forward and take a position.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Irrespective of whether or not Chapel Hill or Carrboro do more work to extend services to the Rogers Road community, the problem is ultimately the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, since it owns the landfill, Commissioner Earl McKee said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whether or not the towns are on board is their choice to live with,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We own it now. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s move forward with it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday night to create a special fund to help pay for community projects in the Rogers Road area &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18307,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18264\/revisions\/18307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}