Landfill transfer fought

Orange residents claim site suggests 'environmental racism'

CHAPEL HILL -- Residents angered by Orange County's plans to put a garbage transfer station in their predominantly black neighborhood have been fighting it for months.

Now they've made it an election issue, claiming the proposal violates a decades-old promise not to stack future piles of town trash near their homes.

They also say the plan smacks of "economic and environmental racism" -- a phrase used to describe the practice of putting garbage dumps, petrochemical plants and other undesirable projects with high toxic potential in poor or minority neighborhoods and sparsely populated rural areas.

Incumbents on the Chapel Hill Town Council, which will have to approve a rezoning for the transfer station, say they can't legally discuss the issue.

That hasn't kept their challengers from speaking up, though. Even some council members have hinted they would like the county to look elsewhere.

Challenger Matt Czajkowski has called the county's transfer station plan "an absolute outrage."

Fellow challenger Will Raymond has identified the Town Council as "the last resort" for the Rogers Road community.

Landfill deal

Residents of Rogers Road, a mostly black community just outside Chapel Hill, say they agreed to the landfill in the 1970s in exchange for neighborhood improvements and a promise that future landfills would go elsewhere.

They've put up with the community's trash for 35 years. The landfill smells bad, pollutes their well water and draws pests and buzzards, they say.

"If we don't do something, we'll be overrun," resident Neloa Jones said. "It's sort of a bleak picture."

Robert Campbell, another resident, promised he and his neighbors will make "no concession" on the transfer station issue.

He and others have lodged a complaint with the Department of Justice about the siting of the transfer station. He declined to discuss the complaint until he speaks with other residents about the federal government's response, but he said the complaint alleges "economic and environmental racism."

Orange County Commissioner Barry Jacobs said the board's decision was not based on race or socioeconomic status and that the commissioners are listening to the residents' concerns.

Asked whether the county might consider looking at other sites, he said: "I don't know. I'm willing to think about it. I am thinking about it. ..."

Seats at stake

The mayor's and four of the eight council members' seats are up in Chapel Hill's elections Nov. 6.

Council members are supposed to remain impartial, or the council's decision could be overturned in court. Still, incumbents Sally Greene and Cam Hill have urged the commissioners to consider alternative sites.

"No one believes that they've done a real search," Hill told the local League of Women Voters on Oct. 1.

Mayoral challenger Kevin Wolff also called for an alternate site, but incumbent Mayor Kevin Foy said that would require support from residents, none of whom seem to want a garbage facility near their homes.

"The commissioners have felt intimidated," Foy said.

Incumbent Town Council member Bill Strom, co-chairman of the Rogers Road Area Task Force charged with crafting a vision for the neighborhood, said county staff needs to come before the council "arm in arm" with the Rogers Road neighbors.

"If that can't be achieved, it's going to be very difficult for me to support the permit," he said.

Said Raymond: "We need to make it clear that if they don't take care of our neighbors on Rogers Road, then we will."

Fellow challenger Penny Rich doesn't like the proposal but remains open to hearing the county's argument. "This neighborhood has had to bear this burden for many, many years," she said.

Site choice criticized

The solid waste station would be a building where garbage trucks transfer their loads to tractor-trailers for shipment to a landfill outside the county.

Critics say the county never fully considered other sites.

"I think I counted, the other day, 11 interstate interchanges in Orange County," Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said. "Each of those interchanges has four corners. So that's 44 sites that we could begin with."

The initial siting of the landfill was fraught with issues of race and class, Chilton said.

"In 1972, everything I know indicates that it was a purely political decision, and it demonstrated who in the community had the least political power. And, not surprisingly, it was low-income people and people of color," he said.

But there are several advantages to putting the solid waste transfer station at the landfill site, said Gayle Wilson, county solid waste management director.

Eubanks Road is centrally located, making it more efficient to haul garbage to the site, he said. That means fewer emissions from trucks and less fuel cost. There's also environmental monitoring in place, and a long history of water quality information already assembled.

Asked if he would mind living near one, Wilson said: "If you're talking about 200 feet away, probably not. If you're talking abut a quarter-mile away, if it was a good facility, well designed, I don't think I would mind that at all."