Orange County Solid Waste cancels proposed waste facility after community concerns

In August, property owners near Orange Grove Road received a notice that the Orange County Solid Waste Management Department had proposed the development of a waste and recycling center within 1,000 feet of their properties. 

The proposed facility at the intersection of N.C. 54 and Orange Grove Road would be the first waste and recycling center in the county that was not surrounded by commercial buildings. Instead, the proposed site bordered residential neighborhoods and private residences. The facility was set to be located on a parcel of land owned by Orange Water and Sewer Authority, part of which is currently used for the application of biosolids.

Over the last several months, the community's concerns about the project grew. Residents near the proposed site met with Orange County commissioners, created information packets, attended meetings and created a petition to stop the project on Orange Grove Road. 

Then, on Dec. 15, the County's Solid Waste Department announced that it was no longer interested in pursuing the property to develop the facility. 

Site selection and resident notification 

The department originally proposed the new site because two current facilities nearby could not be expanded due to their location in a protected watershed, Orange County Solid Waste Director Robert Williams said.

The department sent Neighborhood Information Meeting notices to 39 properties within 1,000 feet of the proposed site on Aug. 10. The County held two neighborhood meetings on the issue in late August. 

Many residents who are currently renting properties on Alton Riley Road, a community of mobile homes within 1,000 feet of the proposed center, did not receive NIM notices.

The County requires NIM notices to be sent to property owners for special use permits, conditional districts and governmental uses to property owners — but not renters.

In a Board of County Commissioners business meeting in September, Nish Trivedi, the Orange County Transportation Services Director, said the western half of the N.C. 54 multimodal corridor — the location of the proposed site — met environmental justice thresholds in three categories: Hispanic or Latino populations, older adults and people with limited English proficiency. The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization uses thresholds to determine environmental justice "communities of concern."

County commissioner Sally Greene said that it was unclear to her that dozens of people live there because the notice was only mailed to property owners. There is only one property owner for the mobile home community. 

Greene said it is easier to find the property owners because they are listed on the tax records, but that renters do not get the benefits and the attention they should.

In a proposed site layout presented by the Solid Waste Department to the OWASA board in June, parts of nearby neighborhoods with renters were not visible due to labels and annotations.Williams said the layout was intended to show the location of the facility on the OWASA site, not necessarily the residential properties near the site.

At the meeting, OWASA board member Jody Eimers requested to see a proposed site map without labels. She said that without the labels, she could see there appear to be residences nearby the site. 

Mary Lawrence, a resident who lives near the proposed site, said her house was covered by the 30-foot buffer label on the overlay presented to OWASA.

"An OWASA board member called attention to that, 'I think there’s a house under here,'" Lawrence said. "Was that intentional, or was that merely coincidental, we’ll never know. It seemed like misinformation." 

Lawrence said she received the NIM meeting notice about two weeks before the meeting dates, and there were nearly 100 people at both meetings.

“Many of the people I'd never seen before,” she said. “We weren’t the only ones alarmed and responding.” 

Further community concerns

OWASA produces biosolids, also referred to as sewage sludge, as part of its wastewater treatment process. One of the sites used for OWASA’s land application of biosolids is located next to the proposed waste and recycling center. 

Joshua Setzer, a property owner near the proposed site, said the neighborhoods around Orange Grove Road are already burdened by the odors, spray and traffic that come with the biosolids field near their homes. 

“It just seems odd to, for a community that's already got these kinds of concerns and questions about biosolids, to also then bring in another facility, disturb soil, all that kind of stuff,” he said. 

According to a press release from Williams, OWASA complies with Environmental Protection Agency practices to reduce odors from the land application of biosolids and it applies biosolids at rates “well below” the regulations. 

Scott Jens, who lives near the proposed center, said he was concerned because the entrance to the facility would have been on a blind corner of a 55 mile-per-hour road.  He added the entrance was also close to a school bus stop. 

County commissioner Jamezetta Bedford said every commissioner visited the proposed site in person. She said, when she saw the property, she saw what the neighbors had told her about a bend in the road, buses and bicyclists. 

“There’s no comparison to seeing it in person,” she said. 

Lawrence said she  did not feel informed about what the Solid Waste Department was doing and continuing to see activity on the site felt discouraging. 

“None of us really understand why they pulled the plug on it,” Jens said. “It was very abrupt.” 

The department has not received any testing results yet, but the County held preliminary discussions with an engineering firm about traffic in the area and soil samples were collected, Williams said.

Lingering questions

Williams said feedback from the community and from the BOCC played a role in the decision to pursue alternative locations. The department pulled the location from consideration before the board voted on it, he added.

Under the County's ordinance, waste and recycling center can be placed anywhere, even in areas that are zoned residential, Bedford said. The BOCC, she said, likely needs to update the code with specific criteria regarding where waste and recycling facilities can be developed. 

“There's no formal protection for citizens,” Setzer said. “There's just sort of this informal, hope that people will say, ‘Well, it wouldn't be nice to put that next to somebody's neighborhood, we should put it somewhere else.'” 

OWASA public information officer Katie Hall said she does not expect the County to consider a different parcel of OWASA land for a potential waste and recycling site at this time. 

Jens said both the OWASA Board of Directors and the BOCC were very genuine and receptive to community concerns about the project. 

“We’re thrilled, right?” Jens said. “But our concern is that they’re going to push this on another community instead of just updating what they have.” 

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the organization that complies with EPA regulations regarding the spreading of biosolids on the site.

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