A group of Orange County residents representing 450 homes and more than 1,000 people will ask the Orange County Board of Commissioners Tuesday night to eliminate a site at the intersection of N.C. 86 and Interstate 40 from consideration for a future solid waste transfer station.
The county has been planning to send its garbage to a transfer station in Durham when the county landfill closes next year. But recently Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton proposed the N.C. 86/I-40 site as a way to save money and give the county more control of its waste while it seeks a more environmentally friendly long-term solution. The mayor says trucking waste to Durham will cost Carrboro and Chapel Hill an extra $750,000 a year.
In a letter to the county commissioners, opponents say a transfer station has no place in the rural buffer, an area mutually agreed upon by local governments to remain low density, without public water and sewer services.
"We are committed to working with you to find better long-term options that can work for all County citizens," the group wrote. "It took courage for you to endorse the Durham WTS as an interim solution until a more permanent solid waste disposal solution utilizing the best 21st century technology can be implemented. We ask you to uphold that decision, and to not 'look back' by reconsidering a proposal whose implementation would compromise the beauty and integrity of the Rural Buffer, and the residential communities that live within it and surrounding it."
The rural group Orange County Voice plans to attend the meeting with members of Justice United and the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association to support the neighbors.
"Not only because it's the wrong site," says president Bonnie Hauser, "but because there are better alternatives." The group also wants a firm commitment on a date to close the landfill, ideally June 30, 2013, the end of the coming fiscal year, she says.
Tuesday's meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center, at 2501 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill. You can see the agenda here.
