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Joan Garnett said that she was representing Justice United. She conceded her three <br /> minutes to Rev. Robert Campbell. <br /> Chair Pelissier said that the Board normally does not allow this, but she would this time. <br /> Rev. Robert Campbell said that he is speaking for RENA, the Coalition to End Racism, <br /> and Justice United. He thanked the County Commissioners for closing the landfill. He said that <br /> in December the County Commissioners promised to clean up 40 illegat dumpsites, which <br /> includes these two that were mentioned in this item. He spoke about a survey that was done <br /> that showed the water was contaminated. He said that the County has this information. He <br /> said that when it was first brought up to clean up these sites, it was stated that it would cost <br /> about$500,000-$1 million to clean it up. He said that$50,000 will not be sufficient. He said <br /> that the illegal dump sites are a liability to Orange County. <br /> Sara Hatcher, Master's student of UNC School of Public Health and the former Project <br /> Leader of UNC's Engineers Without Borders project, said that she is thrilled by the many steps <br /> taken in the last year to provide this community with the services it has been promised. She <br /> said that the project done through Engineers Without Borders identified over 40 illegal dumping <br /> sites, many of which were located within the headwaters of Bolin Creek Watershed. There <br /> were approximately 135 tires, along with hazardous materials such as antifreeze, motor oil, and <br /> paint. This represents a history of disrespect for the community and has potential lasting <br /> environmental health implications. She urged the County to reconsider the restrictions involving <br /> buried, partially buried, and hazardous or dangerous materials as it moves forward with the <br /> landfill neighborhood illegal dumping cleanup and collection initiative. <br /> Chair Pelissier apologized to her colleagues that she allowed time to be conceded. <br /> John Roberts said that the potential of liability is from many sources and County staff <br /> has been given information that some of these sites may have been operated in the past as a <br /> for-profit landfill. He cannot verify this at this time. He said that the cleanup costs for this would <br /> be extremety high, but that is not the reason that he strongly counseled them not to touch this. <br /> He counseled the County Commissioners not to touch this because of the potential for a <br /> tremendous liability from the State and Federal governments. The County taxpayers cannot <br /> afford this potential liability. � <br /> Commissioner Foushee asked John Roberts to explain to the public what the liabilities I <br /> are. , <br /> John Roberts said that there are several state and federal acts such as the Clean Water ' <br /> Acts, Resource and Conservation Recovery Act, etc. Each of these laws has provisions that '�i <br /> anyone who transports, disturbs, or excavates hazardous or toxic materials, regardless of I <br /> whether it was intended or not, becomes liable for that cleanup. This is a very expensive li <br /> cleanup. It would be millions of dollars. I <br /> Commissioner Yuhasz said that the County cannot possibly know what is there until it <br /> investigates, and once it investigates, it cannot possibly avoid the full responsibility of whatever <br /> is found. John Roberts said that once this is disturbed, the County becomes liable. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs said that this issue came up with the development of Fairview <br /> Park, and that is why the County did a land swap with Hillsborough and did not disturb the area <br /> that had materials buried. He thinks that there are two issues here—one is the issue of what <br /> the County is willing to remove and the other is an issue of public health of the people that live <br /> there. He said that the immediate issue at hand is to deal with what can be readily removed. <br /> He thinks that there should be some sort of plan to look at how to address or protect public <br /> health. He asked if the Health Department could review the water contamination data that has <br /> been given to the County Commissioners. He also asked if the property owners could agree to <br /> put in monitoring wells to get some data along the edges of those properties so that there would <br /> �I <br /> I <br /> I <br />