Orange County officials debate trash disposal as landfill approaches capacity

As Orange County’s landfill approaches capacity and its Eubanks Road site nears its closing date, local officials continue to debate the best way to deal with the county’s trash.

Though Orange County Commissioners voted in 2009 to begin transferring trash to a Durham County waste transfer station in 2013, Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton has recently voiced opposition to the plan.

Chilton posted an appeal to residents on the liberal-leaning blog Orange Politics this Monday, asking them to contact their Orange County representatives to oppose the Durham transfer station plan.

The measure is meant to last only three to five years, but Chilton said it should never be used. Instead, he wants the county to continue using the existing landfill or build a new one.

“The Orange County proposal for downtown Durham requires city trucks to drive a long way at highway speeds through heavy traffic, carrying them off their collection routes for a lot longer, and leaving a greater environmental footprint,” Chilton said in an interview.

He said the high cost of transferring waste should also be a deterrent.

Gayle Wilson, director of Orange County solid waste, said moving waste to Durham will cost $130,000 to $140,000 more per year in hauling fees than the county currently pays.

But County Manager Frank Clifton said changing the plan is not that simple, and building a new landfill in Orange County is not on the table.

Wilson said the county has considered building another transfer station as a long-term solution.

The county produces 35,000 to 36,000 tons of garbage per year, significantly more than the minimum 5,000 tons required to build and maintain a station.

But it would cost the county between $1.5 to $6 million to build a station, and finding a location has also been a major hurdle.

Originally, the county planned to build a waste transfer station on top of the Eubanks landfill. But the historically black and low-income Rogers Road community, where the site is located, has housed county trash for nearly 40 years — and activists, the Orange County Democratic Party and the NAACP protested.

Orange County Commissioners reconsidered the location of the transfer station and hired Olver Inc. in 2008 to determine a better location.

When residents near each potential site protested, commissioners voted 6-1 in 2009 to move trash to Durham temporarily to buy time.

County Manager Frank Clifton said they have left the idea of a station in Orange County behind, at least temporarily.

“The county is not at all considering having its own waste transfer station,” Clifton said. “The county’s plans are to move the waste to Durham in 2013.”

But beyond fiscal concerns, Chilton said he also worries about the environmental cost of transferring waste.

“The environmental impact of direct hauling to Durham is significant when you add up Orange County trucks, Chapel Hill trucks, Carrboro trucks and trucks from facilities,” Wilson said.

Chilton also said Orange County could miss future waste managing techniques like mass compost.

“If we start using Durham, we will never stop,” he said. “If we could build the political will in this time, then maybe we could make a difference.”

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