By Rose Laudicina
Staff Writer
As members of the Orange County Board of Commissioners have made clear their intent to close the county’s landfill in 2013, questions linger over what the county and its municipalities are going to do with their trash.
After an Assembly of Governments meeting last week, where board and council members from each municipality gave input on possible solutions they are investigating, two things were made clear: They believe the landfill should close in 2013, and they want to work on trying to find a solution together.
“Based on what I hear from several members of the county commission and the Chapel Hill Town Council, it seems like there are a lot of elected officials who feel very strongly that we should close the landfill in 2013,†Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said at the meeting.
“I think that is a decision I could live with if in the meantime we have selected a site for some other facility for the long term.â€
Chilton had recently proposed keeping the landfill open until 2015 to allow the county time to site a solid-waste transfer station and avoid trucking garbage to Durham County’s transfer station.
The three towns and the county have about 17 months to come up with a solution for where to deposit solid waste.
The county commissioners have said trucking solid waste to the Durham facility is a temporary solution.
Since the Durham option would add only 12 miles to the town of Hillsborough’s collection and drop-off routes, Town Manager Eric Peterson said Hillsborough is amenable to the idea and ready to go ahead with it.
However, both Chapel Hill and Carrboro voiced concern over the high cost of taking their trash to Durham, as it would cost the towns a combined estimated $750,000 a year, as well as the discontent of having no control over where their trash goes from Durham.
“To close the landfill on Rogers Road just to send [garbage] somewhere else and create another Rogers Road just shows that we didn’t learn our lesson,†Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich said.
Trash taken to Durham’s solid-waste transfer station is shipped to an out-of-county landfill.
Instead of committing to the commissioners’ suggestion, Chapel Hill is looking at hiring a consultant to evaluate the town’s entire waste operation and identify the most practical solution, while also considering technologies that would convert waste to energy.
Matt Efird, interim town manager for Carrboro, presented his town’s alternative to the Durham option at the meeting, including Chilton’s proposal that the county look at the feasibility of a site at the northwest corner of I-40 and N.C. 86.
Both Carrboro and Chapel Hill officials expressed their frustration with the lack of long-term solutions suggested by the county.
“Clearly, we would like to close the site,†Chapel Hill Town Council member Gene Pease said, “but to pick a date without any plan made makes absolutely no sense to me. It is putting an incredible burden on us.â€
Commissioners reminded the jurisdictions that they have repeatedly asked them for input on finding alternatives, but have been unsuccessful in getting responses.
Commissioner Valerie Foushee responded to complaints from elected officials about the financial burden closing the landfill will cause, noting the burden the landfill places on the Rogers Road community.
“None of us, I believe, are as frustrated as the people living in the Rogers Road community,†she said.
While officials of each jurisdiction agreed to look into Chilton’s proposal to site a waste transfer station in Orange County, Commissioner Earl McKee said he didn’t feel it was feasible and expects to hear a lot of resistance from the public.
McKee reminded the elected officials of the commissioners’ previous attempts at siting a transfer station in Orange County, which were met with a lot of public backlash.
“Why would we not expect full-throated opposition again?†McKee asked Chilton.
“I am not willing to go through a process only to be beaten back again,†he continued.
Also agreed upon at the meeting was the creation of a task force to determine the cost of extending sewer lines and building a community center for the Rogers Road community.
The task force will be made up of two representatives from each of the boards and two representatives from the Rogers Road Eubanks Neighborhood Association (RENA).