Urban growth tends to enhance prosperity, but it has its ugly drawbacks. Roads become crowded, waterways become polluted. Then there is the endless stream of solid waste. Which luckless community will have to host the next landfill or watch the trash mountain climb ever higher?

Yet trash can be treasure for some. The company operating a private landfill for construction debris in southeastern Wake County’s rural Shotwell community figured it had a ready market and wanted to expand. That’s when the county commissioners unanimously said no.

Already the landfill draws heavy trucks down the area’s two-lane roads. With the proposed expansion – opening the site to debris from Durham and Orange counties, and tripling the annual volume of waste accepted – traffic and noise would have gotten even worse.

The existing landfill serves a need – one that will grow once the economy picks up. But for folks who live in the area, who value their safety and quiet, the operator’s plans would have piled insult upon injury. The commissioners were right to turn the plans down.