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The Orange County Landfill, which has been located on Eubanks Road since 1972, is set to reach capacity in 2012. Anticipating this, county commissioners began a search for a waste transfer site began in 2007, a process that has incorporated input from both Chapel Hill and Carrboro governments, not to mention countless residents of the affected areas.
A waste transfer station will serve as a central collection point for Orange County garbage before it’s shipped beyond county lines. The trash will be moved from multiple garbage trucks into an 18-wheeler truck so it can be economically transported. The trash will come in and out of the station within a day.
The original plan was to build a waste transfer station on top of the current landfill. But the Rogers Road community has housed the county’s trash for about 37 years, and community activists along with the Orange County Democratic Party and the NAACP protested enough for the Orange County Commissioners to reconsider placing a transfer station there. Members of the community, which is historically black and poor with few county services running through, say they were originally promised by Howard Lee, the Chapel Hill mayor when the landfill was placed, that their property values wouldn’t go down, that it would eventually be replaced by a park or another community amenity, and that it would only be there for 10 years.
The county hired consulting firm Olver, Inc. to determine where a transfer station should go. The firm evaluated hundreds of potential sites. Residents near each of the proposed sites protested the potential locations. In December 2009, county commissioners voted to send Orange County’s waste to Durham for at least the next three to five years, buying commissioners more time to reach a solution on the transfer station location.
The Orange County Eubanks Road landfill was first opened in 1972 and was slated to reach capacity in 1982. But after a series of extensions, it’s set to close in 2012.
As Orange County debates how to solve its landfill problem, other local governments are looking to convert waste to energy as a possible solution.
Residents of the community that has housed the county’s landfill for 37 years will no longer need to fear the county directing more trash through their neighborhood.
A decision Monday by the Board of County Commissioners avoided placing a site anywhere in Orange County to route the county’s trash to a different landfill.
When Neil Kirschner moved to Millhouse Road 37 years ago, the county landfill was placed down the road.
Tonight, Orange County Commissioners are scheduled to decide whether a plot of land across the street from Kirschner’s home should be turned into a station to transport trash outside the county when the landfill reaches capacity in 2012.
Two years and almost half a million dollars after the start of their search, the Orange County Board of Commissioners hopes to decide tonight where to route the county’s trash when the landfill reaches capacity in 2012.
It’s a decision process that has aroused substantial public debate and citizen resistance.
White House officials have noticed Rogers Road.
The people of the historically black and low-income community just north of Chapel Hill have for years reached out to local leaders to tell of their struggle with air and water quality after a landfill was placed there in 1972.
Carrboro mayoral and Board of Aldermen candidates answered questions about cross-town partnerships, town safety and economic development at a candidate forum Thursday night.
The Chapel Hill Town Council voted 5-2 Monday to research the fiscal impacts of two potential sites for waste to be collected before it is shipped out of the county.
A waste transfer station is needed because the county landfill is expected to reach capacity in 2012.
A fourth option in Orange County’s ongoing waste transfer station search was met with overwhelming disapproval Tuesday night, leaving the county’s Board of Commissioners with few options and little time left to decide.
The Chapel Hill Town Council might not have enough support to move forward with a waste transfer station possibility at Millhouse Road when it discusses the proposal next month.
The county might consider issues of social justice as it decides on a site for a waste transfer station.
Orange County Board of Commissioners identified Monday specific criteria they will look for in selecting a location for the new waste transfer site.
Orange County Board of Commissioners pledged to heavily incorporate public input in the location of a waste transfer site.
The proposals contrast the vote that would have placed a waste transfer station on Eubanks Road.
The Orange County Board of Commissioners has not yet acted on Commissioner Mike Nelson's opinions regarding the waste transfer center set to be located on Eubanks Road.
Residents of the Rogers Road and Eubanks neighborhoods want to make sure their plea to elected officials doesn't fall on deaf ears.
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