By LEE HINNANT

Developers of a proposed construction debris landfill and recycling site near Sandyfield plan to ask Columbus County commissioners for tentative approval of their plans at the commission’s July 17 meeting.

Opponents of the project – who have staged a march in May and other protests – promise to pack the meeting hall.

The plan would put a 45-acre demolition disposal landfill on a 115-acre tract off Old Lake Road near Sandyfield and the Bladen County line. Developers also want to include areas where construction-related materials – such as concrete, steel and usable building supplies – would be stored and recycled. Now known as the Sandyfield Construction and Demolition Waste Processing and Disposal Facility, the project would take only inert building debris, not household or industrial waste or even materials such as treated lumber.

Some residents of Sandyfield and nearby East Arcadia and Buckhead have protested against the landfill since last year, when Sandyfield Town Council voted to endorse what was then known as the Red and Fred LLC project. The Sandyfield council voted to approve plans and annex the site about two miles from the town limits. Local lawmakers declined to file an annexation bill when opponents of the landfill objected.

L.E. Priester Jr. of Columbia, S.C., has requested the hearing on behalf of Donald “Red” Epperson of Georgia.

Although the site is in Columbus County, it is less than 500 yards from the Bladen County town of East Arcadia. Bladen County Commissioner Delilah Blanks said some of her constituents felt they were being treated unfairly and had no say in a project that would affect their community.

“He couldn’t build it in Bladen County,” Blanks said, referring to Bladen’s land use regulations – rules that do not exist in Columbus County, which has no rural zoning rules. “We just wish the guy would go back to Georgia.”

Blanks said the rural roads in East Arcadia, Armour, Buckhead and Sandyfield are miles away from highways such as U.S. 74-76 and N.C. 87 and not suited for the heavy truck traffic that a landfill would bring. Wetlands and the area’s high water table make East Arcadia an unsuitable site for a landfill, Blanks said.

Epperson and Priester were involved with a similar plan in Guideway in 2004, using land that developers bought from Columbus County Commissioner Lynwood Norris. Norris openly disclosed his involvement long before the sale. County commissioners rejected the plan after neighbors complained that they feared noise, traffic and potential water pollution could harm their community.

Priester said the operation would run only during weekday daylight hours and possibly for a half-day on Saturday. He said that with the planned 300-foot buffer, the landfill would scarcely be noticeable to neighbors. It would likely attract about 20 to 30 trucks a day, he said.

Construction debris landfills are vastly different from home and business waste disposal sites, called municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. MSW landfills must have dual liners and complex, backed-up engineering to prevent pollution and monitor groundwater, streams and the air. North Carolina has about 41 MSW landfills; environmental regulators haven’t ruled on controversial plans for a new regional MSW landfill near Bolton called Riegel Ridge.

Waste Management runs Columbus County’s construction debris landfill, located at the trash transfer station and closed landfill at New Hope.

Construction debris landfills cannot accept household or industrial waste, including treated lumber, food scraps, containers and liquids. They may take only inert debris, such as scrap lumber, plumbing plastics, glass and wallboard.

Environmental controls for construction debris sites are significantly less than those for MSW landfills since construction landfills are not supposed to take waste known to pollute water and the soil.

Priester, a consultant for the Sandyfield project, said the disposal area would not be excavated, nor would it have a protective liner. Waste would be covered with soil, he said.

Opponents of the project have said they don’t trust landfill operators to police the waste stream. They fear that waste could contaminate the groundwater and streams.

Columbus County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kip Godwin said he expected the county to mostly listen to the proposal at the 6 p.m. July 17 meeting but not seriously debate the issues. Godwin said he expected commissioners to set a date for a more in-depth public hearing in the near future.

Godwin has said that commissioners would listen to the proposal but he believed that support for the project was “marginal at best.”

To move forward, landfill developers need local government approval and a franchise agreement with the county. They would also have to apply for permits from the state Division of Solid Waste.