The Current Landfill Proposal

The proposal for a Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfill, which was placed on hold because of the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007, was brought back at the January, 2010 meeting of the Scotland County Board of Commissioners. The Fayetteville Observer stated in an editorial at the time, “ But it’s important that the right questions be asked before, not after, county residents make an irrevocable commitment of land and support to an effort to make a 20th century technology their 21st century mainstay”.

The current proposal is for a modification of an existing permit at the Construction and Demolition (C&D) landfill. The rationale is that the 21 acre leaking landfill can be remediated by constructing a 236 acre landfill, using existing landfill material as cover. How does such a large permit modification (from C&D to MSW, and from 21 acres to 236 acres) comply with The Municipal Solid Waste Management Act of 2007?

The Laurinburg Exchange reported that at the January Commissioners Meeting the county manager stated, "With a 3,000 average ton per day limitation and a service area of North and South Carolina, this landfill will be safe for the citizens of Scotland County and be profitable for Scotland County." The same Exchange article quoted the county manager as saying, “The concept we are discussing would meet the interests of a smaller landfill, not a ‘mega dump’”. Is a landfill that has the capacity to serve up to 30 million people considered small? (Note: The total population of North and South Carolina is less than 16 million people.)

Waste Management, Waste Industries, and at least one other waste company are interested in partnering with the county. In a letter to the county manager in January 2010, Waste Management stated that they could immediately dispose of up to 2,500 tons per day of municipal solid waste and special waste.

The county spent over $200,000.00 of taxpayer money on the site in the Sandhills. How much has the county spent, and how much does it plan to spend, on the current proposal, before Commissioners vote on whether or not to pursue a MSW landfill? Interestingly, the new site is about 15 miles (as the seagulls fly) from the mega dump being proposed by MRR in Marlboro County, SC. The entrance to the Marlboro site would be through NC, near Hamlet.

The site is within three miles of the Laurinburg-Maxton airport. It is generally agreed that with a resurfaced runway, the airport is the county’s prime economic development engine. In 2000, Federal Aviation Administration regulations were changed to require that airports and landfills be five miles apart, because too many bird strikes were occurring near landfills. State and federal governments, and the military, are making efforts on our behalf to generate funds to resurface the runway. Why would we jeopardize these funding efforts by siting a landfill within three miles of the airport?

As the Fayetteville Observer editorial notes, “But it's a letdown to see a nice place such as Scotland County revisiting the idea of making other people's garbage its new economic engine.”