Landfill
developers ask state for $8.6 million

• Supporting documentation kept from public view.

By NICOLE CARTRETTE
Staff Writer

Riegel Ridge, LLC and Waste Management of the Carolinas are asking the state for $8.6 million in costs associated with the regional landfill that was planned for the Green Swamp in eastern Columbus County.

What exactly is included in the multi-million dollar request is unclear. For weeks, only the request and 1999 franchise agreement with Columbus County have been made public while the bulk of the 800 pages of supporting documentation has been kept from the public’s view.

Waste Management first claimed the documents were “business confidential;” now it appears some of the documentation is being claimed confidential under “attorney client privilege” exceptions under the N.C. Public Record’s law.

“The (N.C. Division of Waste Management) and this office are concerned that this broad designation of confidentiality embraces information which is not entitled to such a designation,” an assistant attorney general with the N.C. Department of Justice wrote in a Jan. 18 letter to the company’s legal council concerning the state’s “trade secret” exemption to the public records law.

The News Reporter first requested access to the documents on Jan. 9.

On Jan. 11, a review of the Waste Management and Riegel Ridge documents housed in Raleigh proved to be skimpy compared to records available for other developers seeking funds.

Waste Industries $13-plus million claim resulting from a landfill project halted in Camden County contained hundreds of documents in two separate binders.

Meal receipts, flight expenses, hotel receipts and donations to charities were included.

On Jan. 25, the Solid Waste division stated in an email that the complete records were available for viewing with the exception of “the submission claimed as attorney/client privileged, limited to the invoices on law firm letterhead that were included in Volume II.”

Copies of those records have been requested but not yet received.

State law enacted last year, imposed setbacks from state game lands and parks.

That move stopped developers of several major landfills across the state from moving forward.

The landfill planned for Columbus County was no exception and because of its close proximity to wet lands came to a halt after a number of permits and local government approval had been obtained.

The two corporations state in one of the requests that that application for a permit to construct would have been obtained had it not been for the law that was enacted.

The request cites affidavits of two individuals but those documents too were withheld as confidential.

Under the law, developers are eligible for a reimbursement of certain “reasonable and necessary” costs to come from a tax on tipping fees at landfills.

Lobbying fees, interests in land or legal costs in attempting to influence an administrative or legislative body are not reimbursable expenses.

Riegel Ridge’s request calls for $6.3 million in compensation to cover a contract between Waste Management of the Carolinas and Riegel Ridge Partners. The developers criticize the language of the bill that allowed the reimbursement.

“We find the language to be vague as to exactly what constitutes acceptable documentation.

Therefore, we are submitting all of the documentation we believe necessary to support the request,” a letter from Riegel Ridge Partners addressed to the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources reads.

The letter explains that upon receipt of $6,303,633 Riegel Ridge Partners, Gregory A. Peverall, William W. Drietzler, and James D. Marlowe, individually, will agree to the “waiver and covenant not to sue.”

Waste Management’s separate claim is for more than $2 million and is prepared by attorney Charles Case, of Hunton and Williams.

Case was registered with the Secretary of the State’s Office as a lobbyist for Waste Management of the Carolinas in 2007.

Peverall was registered as a lobbyist with Environmental Alliance, LLC in 2007.