Minutes - 20080219 - Transfer Station

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3 the roads. He wants to discuss this in more detail. He thinks that the distance from major roadways should be dropped back to one mile. Chair Jacobs said that if something were located north of Hillsborough, trucks would have to travel from Chapel Hill through Hillsborough, and since trucks cannot go through downtown, they will have to bypass Hillsborough. He does not see the point in including anything north of Hillsborough, unless it is right off the interstate. Ed Schuffler said that one of the other criteria he wanted to discuss is the distance from the waste centroid as a means of excluding some areas. This can be an exclusionary criterion. He said that the general rule of thumb is that transfer stations work whenever you get to the site from 15-17 miles one way. He would like to propose a ten- mile distance from the waste centroid. Chair Jacobs said to actually use realistic traffic routes when this comes back and have staff do the actual mileage. He said that he is comfortable with the ten miles from the waste centroid. Commissioner Gordon asked that it be brought back for further discussion. Commissioner Gordon said that Chapel Hill and Carrboro are not going to want this traffic going through their towns either, and that the sites causing traffic to go through Chapel Hill and Carrboro should also be excluded. Commissioner Carey suggested including this ten-mile radius in the exclusionary criteria because there is no reason to keep sites on a map that are clearly not going to be selected because they are too far out. Ed Schuffler said that this would be brought back for discussion and public comment too. Ed Schuffler said that there was discussion about excluding the County protected watersheds. It was decided to use the critical watershed as exclusionary criteria, and also consider some protected watershed criteria that could be brought back in March. Commissioner Gordon said that she did ask that protected watersheds be in these exclusionary criteria as well. Ed Schuffler said that Planning staff wanted to look at that and it will be brought back. Commissioner Gordon clarified that she wanted to add protected watersheds to the exclusionary criteria except for those areas that were designated as non-residential on the land use map. Ed Schuffler said that is why they identified that and it would be brought back by the next meeting. 2. Public Comment on Preliminary Exclusionary Criteria Chair Jacobs said that this phase of the public comment is directed to the preliminary exclusionary criteria only. General comments will be heard near the end of the meeting. Neloa Jones said that she is very concerned that she has not heard anyone talk about having done a "professional" analysis that identifies the center of waste and that really takes into account the population boom and the future developments. Secondly, she is very disturbed that this consultant is talking about excluding sites before developing all of the criteria. She said that this already sets up a bias, and this is not acceptable. Thirdly, she made reference to the 25 acres that are needed and said that she does not understand why the Eubanks Road site is still on the table, because there are only 3-4 acres that are available there. She said that this is why the EPA recommends an advisory panel so that the neighborhood does not have these kinds of issues to worry about. Yonnie Chapman said that he would like to add criteria based on the impact of solid waste disposal on human beings. He wants to suggest adding an environmental justice criterion. He said that the Orange County HRC at its October 8th meeting approved three recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners regarding the siting of a transfer