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a temporary
reprieve
A 12-month moratorium enacted by the General Assembly last week will delay permitting for a number of large landfills slated for North Carolina, including the Riegel Ridge landfill planned for the Green Swamp in Columbus County.
It’s safe to say that this is largely a political move aimed to appease landfill opponents in affected counties. In some cases, including the Riegel Ridge landfill, the applicants have largely satisfied many or most of the requirements established by state and federal government regulatory agencies.
One part of the moratorium is to study the effects landfills have on water and air quality, plus address other environmental concerns.
Another concern is that North Carolina could become a dumping ground for out-of-state trash. If that’s true and voters consider it an issue, then banning out-of-state trash can easily be accomplished with a bill in the next session.
Landfills aren’t going away, however. Humankind continues to produce an ever-growing mountain of trash. It cannot be efficiently burned, nor should it be dumped in the ocean. The only practical, cost-efficient solution is to bury it using the latest technology to prevent groundwater contamination.
If the state really wants to do something about landfills, it should study ways to increase recycling and make it mandatory. Interestingly, some of the landfills that fall under the moratorium, including the ones proposed for Sandyfield and the Hugo Neu landfill near Leland, would do quite a bit of recycling.
The problem is, everyone knows that recycling is the best way to reduce the state’s huge waste stream, but because it’s far cheaper to bury it, recycling gets pushed to the wayside. Whiteville just ended its curbside recycling program because city council deemed it too expensive.
Until as a citizenry we’re willing to make the sacrifices to recycle, landfills will be necessary and moratoriums will only delay the inevitable.