Minutes - 20090421 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ray Kirby said that there are going to be trucks on this road. He said that from 8:30- 12:30 daily, there are approximately 750-800 cars and trucks going down NC 54 per hour. From 12:30-3:30, there are approximately 650-700 cars. From 3:30-5:00, there are about 700-750 cars per hour. Adding trucks on this road will be dangerous and chaotic. Rick Eckberg read a prepared statement. He was from Orange County Voice. "Thank you for the opportunity to provide public input for the board. We believe that building a Waste Transfer Station on the Howell property on Rt. 54 in rural Bingham Township is a mistake. The Howell site is far from the waste generation centroid and from the County's existing solid waste facilities; the site lacks public water and sewer; this property does not `perk' well and will not allow easy septic installation; finally, the Howell site is neither located on a major highway nor convenient to rail service. In short, the Howell site does not meet established EPA standards for solid waste transfer structure and will be very expensive to develop. We also believe that placing such a facility in the rural community is at odds with zoning and long-range comprehensive County planning, and that the Howell site poses significant environmental and safety problems that will delay and add unnecessary cost to the project. We realize that the BOCC has been buried under numerous reports and recommendations from Olver, Inc., our staff, the SWAB, and other interested parties for more than a year, and that it has been difficult to sift through so much data and assumptions, some of them contradictory, and to arrive at a good decision about future cost effective solid waste disposal in Orange County. We have been perusing these same reports and generating our own information pertinent to the topic, and want to assist the Board in asking good questions and seeking correct information based on solid facts. Expediency should not dictate a decision of this magnitude, rather, hard financial, technical, and environmental data must be weighed so that Orange County selects a sustainable, fiscally responsible, and proper course of action that properly serves present and future needs of all its citizens." Susan Walser was also with Orange County Voice and read a prepared statement. "Environmental and Safety Risks There are environmental and safety risks —which will add to the costs for the Howell site. Your package contains reports from Olver, their contractor Hal Owen and Associates, and the state clearinghouse that concurs with our view. Here are some important points that are embedded in the volumes of reports in your packages. As you listen, please recall that the exclusionary criteria states any parcel of 25 acres or more must not be encumbered by wetlands, floodplains, and endangered flora and fauna. It appears that this site should have been excluded from the start. -There are risks to endangered and protected aquatic species o Even though County's EA indicated that there are no endangered species within 10 miles of the site, Olver's new report, supported by NC DENR and Mr. Owen's report, confirms that the Haw River Nationally Significant Aquatic habitat—which contains endangered species — is 2 miles downstream from the site. o The tributaries on the site and the area of Collins Creek between the Howell site and the Nationally Significant habitat has never been surveyed. o Mr. Owen's team surveyed the site and found evidence of a state threatened species. Their work did not include downstream impacts. o NC DENR states that all of these species are vulnerable to runoff from construction and ongoing operations, and that problems may have already been caused by the driveway that's now being built— purportedly for two private homes. It's stated in Olver's report: more expensive work now must be done to perform natural