Orange County NC Website
,~ <br />with the study between the jurisdictions, they need to specify to look at the possibility for a <br />landfill in Orange County. She said that if everyone is concerned about having trash in their <br />own backyard, they should be concerned about where they are sending it. She wants to stick <br />to the values. <br />Commissioner Jacobs did not accept this as a friendly amendment. He said that <br />his motion does not preclude considering a landfill. <br />Commissioner Yuhasz said that he too is concerned about the long-term solution for <br />trash and Durham County is only an intermediate solution. He said that he would have been <br />very pleased to have accepted Commissioner Jacobs' motion, but now he is concerned about <br />adding on commitments that may tie the hands of some future Board of County <br />Commissioners and will raise expectations among certain people that they are off the table. <br />He said that if there is going to be a clear, transparent, fair process, nothing should be off the <br />table. For this reason, he is hesitant to support the motion as stated. <br />Chair Foushee said that she is happy that they are finally removing the Rogers- <br />Eubanks-Millhouse Road community from the site list. She said that this is a consideration of <br />environmental injustice. <br />VOTE: Ayes, 6; Nay, 1(Commissioner Yuhasz) <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Pelissier, seconded by Commissioner Nelson to <br />specifically consider a landfill when the staff looks at solid waste alternatives. <br />Commissioner Nelson said that he seconded this motion because he does not believe it <br />is consistent with this community's values to shift its waste to a poorer, less affluent community <br />somewhere, whether it's Virginia or rural North Carolina. He is deeply opposed to this. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that there is part of him that agrees with this, but having <br />voted in 2000 as a unanimous Board against siting another landfill in Orange County, he <br />suggested that since 2/3 of the waste is produced in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, there is an <br />inherent injustice with putting a landfill on the other end of the County. He said that he is not in <br />support of putting the waste of 2/3 of the people in the backyards of 1/3 of the people. He <br />respects the motion but cannot vote for it. <br />Commissioner Yuhasz said that he will vote against this motion because it presumes <br />that the community is seen as only Orange County. He said that a solid waste solution should <br />come from the regional community. He does not want to concentrate energies in merely an <br />Orange County solution. <br />Commissioner Nelson said that the reality is that the waste is being shipped to a poorer <br />county that is largely minority and it is not consistent with Orange County's values to take <br />waste from an affluent county that ship it to a county that is poorer because it is easy to do. <br />He said that it will be a nightmare for another community. <br />Commissioner Yuhasz said that the suggestion to take waste from Chapel Hill and <br />Carrboro and send it to some place in a remote part of Orange County is the same philosophy <br />as taking the waste from an affluent community and sending it to another community. He said <br />that whatever group is constituted to look at the solid waste problem should be allowed the <br />latitude to look at it with complete freedom to find the best solution. This is why he voted <br />against the previous motion. <br />VOTE: Ayes, 3 (Commissioner Foushee, Commissioner Pelissier, and Commissioner Nelson); <br />Nays, 4 <br />