Black should get behind moratorium on proposed landfills

The Charlotte Observer

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time-out on dumps
Black should get behind moratorium on proposed landfills

If four landfills proposed in eastern North Carolina were ordinary dumps, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Nor would the state House be debating a moratorium on landfill permits.
But these four projects -- one each in Columbus, Camden, Brunswick and Hyde counties -- are mega-landfills that would make North Carolina the landfill center of the East Coast. Before they get the go-ahead, the state needs a time-out to make sure its regulations are adequate to protect public health and the environment.

The state Senate has agreed to that. Now the call rests in the hands of the state House and its speaker, Rep. Jim Black. This is a no-brainer: He ought to quickly get behind a bill that halts all permits -- including these four proposed mega-landfills -- for 18 months.

At stake are clean water, air and soil. The four proposed mega-landfills will handle different kinds of refuse. But each of them raises unsettling questions about pollution.

In coastal Camden and Columbus counties, for example, thousands of tons of out-of-state municipal garbage might pile in every day. The Camden landfill would cover 500 acres, towering as high as 25 stories, and potentially degrade the water supply for parts of the Tidewater region. The Columbus County landfill, 170 acres and 350-feet high, would be built in wetlands drained by paper companies just enough to grow pine trees. That's nuts.

Yet it's exactly why the moratorium bill passed by the state Senate is so necessary. It would suspend new landfill permits until 2008. That would let North Carolina study whether its coastal region is suitable for mega-dumps, and, if so, what kinds of rules and precautions ought to be required of the companies who operate them.

That's critical. The state's current regulations and its process for permitting landfills were not designed with huge dumps like these in mind. They ought to be.

Rep. Black and his peers in the House should not be fooled by the fact local governments in the rural counties where the mega-landfills have been proposed are supporting them. When you're hungry for jobs and tax revenue, as many of these places are, the prospect of a new industry of any kind looks pretty appealing.

Yet there's adamant opposition from residents in each of these counties. Their concerns are on point: Dumps come with clear risk to public health and the environment -- and with the potential to snuff any future prosperity.

This is a critical juncture for a challenged region of North Carolina, one that's blessed with beautiful and valuable natural resources. We need a time-out on landfills.