Agenda - 09-21-1999 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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TO: Gayle Wilson, Director, Orange County- Chapel Hill Department of Solid Waste Management FR: Jim Bateson, P.G., and Jan McHargue, P.E., Joyce Engineering, Inc. RE: Response to the September 21, 1999 Comments by Dr. Z.J. Kabala, concerning Guess Road site characterization DATE: September 27,1999 This memo is in response to comments by Dr. Z.J. Kabala during the September 21 public hearing on C &D landfill siting. Our purpose is to clear up any confusion that those comments may have caused, so that the Board can make informed decisions based on accurate information. Setting the record straight is important for Orange County and the County's Department of Solid Waste Management. Over the long run, inflated public perceptions of environmental risk cripple a community's, efforts to find safe, equitable and affordable solutions to its waste disposal needs. What perceptions were left with the audience? One was that arsenic from construction and demolition waste will contaminate large areas around such landfills. Dr. Kabala repeated tonnage figures from a Superfund site in Massachusetts where arsenic- bearing industrial waste was dumped over a period of decades onto a floodplain. Comparing this disaster with a modern landfill is not relevant, particularly in light of the trace levels of arsenic listed in the Environmental Protection Agency's C &D Leachate Database, or contained in the mass of groundwater monitoring data for North Carolina landfills. A second perception was that the engineering and hydrogeologic investigations performed to date at the Guess Road site were inadequate and poorly designed. Dr. Kabala stated that the arsenic threat warranted the use of expensive multi -well pumping tests, normally required only at sites with significant known groundwater contamination. Our methods are industry standard procedures required by the NC Solid Waste Management Rules. Our study design, and its pre - approval by the NC Division of Waste Management, were based on the known risks of existing landfills in North Carolina, and on the accumulated experience of the community of consultants, regulators, and university faculty who tackle groundwater problems in this state. We would be happy to discuss these issues with Dr. Kabala in regard to either of the two sites. Specific comments, with our responses, are attached. We appreciate that Dr. Kabala's arguments for caution in siting a landfill in the Little River watershed were made in the spirit of public service. However, influencing public perception through sensationalism, by using information from sites which are not comparable to C &D landfills, is a disservice to the community. We hope that impressions left by his words will not prevent reasoned discussion about how best to meet Orange County's solid waste challenges. Response to Comments of Dr. Z.J. Kabala 1 Joyce Engineering, Inc C &D Landfill Siting September 27, 1999 Orange County, North Carolina