By LEE HINNANT

Developers of a proposed landfill Columbus County said they would continue pressing the project, despite the Legislature’s decision last week to impose a one-year moratorium on landfill permits.

Gov. Mike Easley has stated he will sign into law the bill that halts nearly all types of landfills until August 2007 and establishes a commission to study a variety of waste disposal issues.

In the spring, regulators at the state Division of Solid Waste said they expected to decide this summer whether to issue a crucial site suitability permit for the planned Riegel Ridge landfill six miles south of Bolton. The new law precludes the state from further considering the project, along with the controversial Sims Hugo Neu recycling and landfill project in neighboring Brunswick County.

“We’ll just keep on going with the flow,” said Greg Peverall, a Riegel Ridge partner. “We still feel like we’ve got a very good project for Columbus County and this will just be a part of the permitting process.”

Perverall said the developers had been addressing concerns raised by state and federal regulators for six years and that they would continue to work on construction plans. “We’ll be even more prepared once the moratorium is lifted for the state to review our construction plans,” he said.

Riegel Ridge wants to put a 107-acre, dual-lined landfill on a 760-acre site in the Green Swamp. It has obtained local approval from Columbus County, a state water quality permit and a federal wetlands permit.

The county favors the project as a way to reduce waste disposal costs and could save more than $1 million a year.

Opponents say they fear the liner and other safeguards could fail and the landfill could contaminate streams and drinking water. They question the wisdom of putting a regional landfill in the Green Swamp.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Mason Malpass said of the moratorium. “It could be a major step.” Malpass is chairman of the Friends of the Green Swamp, a group fighting the Riegel Ridge project.

Malpass cautioned that the moratorium would be only a temporary reprieve and that the public would have to remain vigilant to halt the spread of landfills in North Carolina. The technology that is supposed to keep landfills from leaking is less than 50 years old, so it has not been adequately tested in the real world, he said.

Malpass said his group favored small, tightly controlled landfills and a serious, aggressive recycling program.

The Riegel Ridge landfill would take a maximum of 1,500 tons of waste a day and that waste must be generated within 100 miles of Columbus County, under the deal made with county commissioners.

The moratorium law establishes a commission to study a variety of issues, including financial responsibility of operators, public notices, site and design requirements, traffic considerations, preventing the introduction of hazardous waste and whether there are ways to reduce the generation of solid waste.

Both Rep. Dewey Hill and Sen. R.C. Soles Jr. supported the moratorium measure.