Minutes 10-04-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Frank Clifton made reference to Attachment 4 and said that the charts give a physical street address and connection costs. This attachment only includes costs for water and not sewer. Michael Talbert pointed out the homes on a map that are hooked onto the water system. Commissioner Hemminger said that part of her concern is that if this is done out of County funding by itself in Chapel Hill's and Carrboro's jurisdictions, she feels strongly that this is a landfill issue coordinated for hooking up water. It is something that everybody has paid into. She does not want to set a precedent of coming into jurisdictions and doing this. Frank Clifton said that the County already spent $600,000 out of the Landfill Fund. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 66 and asked who prepared these options, with advantages and disadvantages. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilsons said that it was prepared by the consultant. Commissioner Jacobs said that this is inappropriate to count public involvement as a disadvantage to any kind of process. This is repeated in this document. He wants to be clear that public involvement is an advantage and not a disadvantage. He wants people to be able to feel that the participation is valued. Commissioner Foushee pointed out that this comment has been made before when this document first came out. The Board asked that these comments not be included in any other of the documents related to processes. Frank Clifton said that the statements are appropriate, but he thinks that the consultant meant that there is a public hearing process that is required for one step versus another one. Commissioner Jacobs asked when the Ieachate liner was breached, which he heard from the public comments. Gayle Wilson said that he is not aware of that happening. Commissioner Jacobs said that when water was provided to the Rogers Road neighborhood, there were extended conversations about whether or not there was a causal relationship between Ieachate from the landfill and water quality in the neighborhood. Staff said at that time that the monitoring well showed that there was no contamination. Gayle Wilson said that this is correct. Commissioner Jacobs asked if that was still the case. Gayle Wilson said that this is still the case based on the routine and ongoing monitoring program. Commissioner Jacobs said that there is a significant difference between how the County regards Rogers Road water and sewer and how it regards Fox Meadow and other subdivisions and what the obligation is as a unit of government, as the landfill may or may not relate to the need for water and sewer. He said that a lot of these issues require the County to have a meeting with the other governments. He suggested having a government assembly instead of an Assembly of Governments so that people know it is something new. He suggested that it be reiterated that the Greene Tract would be maintained as open space. Orange County has committed to this. Also, what will be spent from the General Fund versus the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund should be discussed with the towns. He also wants to talk about joint approaches to waste disposal. He also thinks that there should be a discussion about levels of contamination because people are convinced that the landfill has contaminated the water. This needs to be addressed for all of the governmental officials to hear. Commissioner Foushee agreed with Commissioner Jacobs. She said that she would like to separate the remediation process from the landfill closing and everything else for just a moment. She said that she has been on this Board for about seven years and the Board committed itself to direct staff to come up with a plan for remediation. She said that the one thing that the County Commissioners have always known is that this process will be expensive. The residents of Rogers Road have been told for 40 years that it will cost a lot of money to do this. The County has to be careful how this is done. She said that knowing that it is going to be expensive does not preclude the County from moving forward. She thinks that the