The Orange County Board of County Commissioners’ promise to close the Rogers Road landfill in 2013 is a commendable step toward solving our county’s trash crisis — but the board’s Tuesday vote was largely symbolic.
The real work is yet to come; officials still have to find a place for the county’s trash to go after the landfill closes.
It won’t be easy to reach a compromise that minimizes environmental problems while remaining fiscally feasible.
If it were, the Rogers Road landfill wouldn’t still be open today, 30 years after it was originally scheduled to close.
Inevitably, some parties will be happy. In all likelihood, the solution will require increased taxes or reallocation of the already strained budget away from other worthy projects to waste management.
Regardless of what it decides, however, the board must make good on its promise and ensure the life of the Rogers Road landfill is not extended again.
Sacrifices will have to be made, but the Rogers Road community has been forced to make too many for too long.
