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,~ <br />are asking for assurance that this process will not double back again to this community. They <br />would like their community to be taken out of consideration as a trash site now and forever. <br />Robert Campbell said that he stands here tonight with residents, family, friends, and <br />members of the Rogers/Eubanks Neighborhood Association and the Coalition to End <br />Environmental Racism. He asked everyone in support of no waste transfer station in the <br />Rogers Road/Eubanks Road/Millhouse Road community to stand. He said that one site under <br />consideration is a County-owned plot of land on Millhouse Road and they oppose this site <br />because it is in the same community that has been impacted by solid waste disposal for the <br />past 37 years. He said that they live with bad water, bad air quality, unsafe roads, and they <br />are an underserved community. He said that they have worked tirelessly to protect the quality <br />of life. He said that because of the history of these issues, the Rogers/Eubanks neighborhood <br />was given an invitation to the White House to be a participant in a clean energy economic <br />forum. On November 25, 2009 he received a letter from EPA that the complaint against <br />Orange County is moving forward and the EPA will consider investigating the County on the <br />issue if the BOCC decided to put a waste transfer station on Millhouse Road. He asked that <br />the County Commissioners finally do the right thing for Orange County. <br />Cecil Griffin said that he has expressed to the County Commissioners that the use of <br />the Paydarfar site is a bait and switch that violates public trust in Orange County. He said that <br />his Dad was mayor of a small town in eastern North Carolina for many years and he would ask <br />his dad why he and the town board did or did not do certain things, and he would respond, <br />"Son, regardless of what is legal, we have to try to do what is right." He said that his dad was <br />never defeated in the reelection campaign. He asked the County Commissioners to do what is <br />right. <br />Mark Dorosin is the Senior Managing Attorney for UNC Center for Civil Rights. He <br />made reference to his letter sent last week regarding restricted covenants at the Paydarfar <br />site, which includes a restriction for the property to be used for residential purposes only. He <br />said that a number of adjacent properties also originally belonged to the Blackwoods and <br />contained similar or identical restrictions, thereby creating mutual benefits and burdens for the <br />owners of those properties, and which give those owners legal rights to enforce the deed <br />restrictions. He said that these restrictions, although legally binding and otherwise <br />enforceable, may not be able to stop the development of a waste transfer station if the County <br />selects the Paydarfar site. North Carolina courts have held that if the County violates those <br />restrictive covenants, such action would constitute a taking of vested property rights for which <br />the adjacent owners would be entitled to just compensation. It would be up to a court to <br />determine the value of the property right not to live next to a solid waste transfer station for <br />each of the other owners subject to those restrictions. This process would be complicated and <br />expensive. He reminded the Board of the critical environmental justice issues in the possible <br />selection of the Paydarfar site. Federal and state guidelines specify that environmental justice <br />requires governments to consider both the cumulative effects and recurrent impacts of <br />environmental decisions on communities of color, as well as past impacts not adequately <br />remedied. The guidelines also specifically refer to past environmental commitments to <br />communities of color that have been broken or ignored. He asked the County Commissioners <br />to please remove the Paydarfar site from any further consideration of any solid waste uses. <br />Tom Schopler thanked the Manager for his analysis of this process. He made <br />reference to the question of the control of the waste flow and said that it seems that the <br />County could have licensing and oversight on the trash haulers and the inspection capability to <br />make sure that the trash is properly sorted and the proper recycling takes place. He said that <br />he supports the use of the Durham transfer station. He thinks that the 3-5 year window allows <br />proper time to address the issue directly. <br />