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Landfill Moratorium Status Review

by Bill Kloepfer |
Feb 15, 2007

In the final days of the 2006 North Carolina legislative session, members of the Legislature passed a Landfill Moratorium bill putting a one year hold on permitting any new landfills.  During this period the NC Environmental Review Commission (ERC) and a newly created Joint Commission on Environmental Justice (EJC) have been directed to study the issue and make recommendations for new laws and regulations that are needed to adequately protect the citizens, communities, and the environment of our state.  On Saturday, January 20 a meeting was held at the Council for the Arts Building in Kinston to provide information about the status of the work of the ERC and EJC commissions.  Dr. Fred McQueen, a member of the newly-created EJC, was a special guest speaker.  He stated that waste disposal companies are seeking to locate in eastern North Carolina because of large open spaces, lax regulation, and the existence of small rural communities that are desperate for anything that will provide jobs and new sources of revenue.  The proposed landfills are of a size and scope never before seen in our state.  They will have impacts far beyond the community in which they are located.  The Commission believes that each of these proposals must be studied in enough detail to understand fully their long term impact on the environment and the surrounding communities.  The state must address economic development opportunities for our poorest communities so they no longer feel that importing trash is the only alternative they have.

Private companies are in the process of applying for permits for six new landfills to be located in Hyde, Brunswick, Camden, Scotland, Richmond and Colombus counties.  They would all be located in the sensitive environment of our state's coastal plain.  Three of these would be huge, regional landfills each capable of accepting millions of tons of waste each year.  Most of this waste would be barged and trucked in from out of state.  North Carolina would become the fourth-largest importer of trash in the nation. Ultimately, these landfills would result in piles of refuge hundreds of feet high that would dominate the flat coastal landscape forever.  Unless we face this issue as "One North Carolina," our state will become the dumping ground for the entire East Coast.

The ERC has already held several meetings to hear several presentations from the state environmental staff and from a coalition of environmental organizations about what is needed to strengthen the state's solid waste laws.  The Sierra Club and the Coastal Federation have a lead role in the environmental coalition.  Recommendations under consideration include stricter siting requirements, stronger design standards, overhaul of the landfill franchise process, bans on certain types of waste, and adequate staffing  to enforce these bans and other operational requirements.  One item of particular interest is the strenghening of financial capability requirements to ensure that the landfill ownership entity has the financial capability to meet its operational and post-operational obligations fully.  Strong support from the governor's office and many members of legislature should result in the introduction of a strong landfill bill in the legislature.  As concerned citizens, we need to follow this issue closely and to work for passage once the bill is introduced.  To contact your state representative, visit the NC State Legislature website at  http://www.ncga.state.nc.us