Agenda - 05-04-1987 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 r +} � ( 2�. 11 believes that for the following reasons, county planners must be concerned about their ability to meet landfilling needs beyond the next eight years: (1) The amount of waste being buried at the Eubanks landfill has increased alarmingly over the last three years. The actual tonnage buried in fiscal 1986 exceeded previous estimates by 23 percent; (2) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill plans power plant renovations that, unless an alternative disposal method is found, will probably add at least 10 percent (18,000 tons per year) to the total waste stream flowing into the Eubanks site at the time the first phase of those renovations are completed in 1991; (3) Trends are sometimes reversed, but these two points, coupled with the uncertainty involved in estimating a landfill's lifetime, give reason to doubt that the Eubanks site will last the 11 years predicted in March, 1986; (4) Nearly a year has elapsed since that estimate was made, leaving just ten years; (5) According to state sanitation official Jim Coffey, the preliminary geological engineering study made on the Greene Tract in 1984, in which borings were made only until augurs were rejected by rock, may be inadequate. The State now requires that test borings be deep enough to hit the water table, in order to determine groundwater migration patterns; (6) Any application to use the Greene Tract as a sanitary landfill is likely to meet stricter state and federal landfill siting regulations. The State of North Carolina granted just 20 landfill permits against the 40 requests made in fiscal 1986. Obtaining a state permit for landfilling generally takes at least six months. Mecklenburg County has waited over a year and fought stiff opppostion before finally receiving approval early this year; (7) There has been and will probably continue to be strong local opposition to any permit to use the Greene Tract as a landfill site; (8) Despite all of these potential impediments, the County has identified no specific alternative to the Greene Tract. Should the Greene Tract fail to satisfy state regulations, heightened local awareness and escalating land costs will make it even more difficult to acquire an alternative site. Given these considerations, local planners must begin as soon as possible to search for alternate landfill sites. Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County purchased the Greene tract without knowing whether it was a suitable site for a sanitary landfill . Although legally required to do so, by arranging the purchase behind closed doors, the county and two towns acted in a manner bound to engender public distrust.