Orange County has shirked its responsibility to follow its commitments and has kicked the can down the road too many times.
Now the time has come for a real solution to a pressing problem with regard to the Orange County’s Eubanks Road landfill.
In an unsurprising move, Orange County has once again applied to delay the closing of the Eubanks Road landfill which was created in 1972.
The landfill was slated to be closed in 2012, but Orange County Waste Management officials want to delay the closing until 2016, citing high costs. After closing, the tentative plan is to temporarily utilize a waste transfer station in Durham.
But continuous delays do not a sustainable solution make.
The county says that extending the life of the landfill is good for taxpayers. But this extension is not a lasting solution by any means.
Even Steve Yuhasz, Orange County Board of Commissioners vice chairman, acknowledged that the trash is going to have to go elsewhere in the long run.
Gayle Wilson, director of the solid waste management department, also openly admits to wanting to extend the landfill as long as possible in order to “delay greater costs,” he said.
The delay includes plans to steepen the side slopes of the landfill in order to increase its capacity. But delaying greater costs in order to better serve the community is a contradiction in terms.
And with the landfill located in a historically low-income and black area of the county, saying it is good for the “current users” tells only part of the story.
