Landfill outfits must open
their books

Riegel Ridge LLC and Waste Management shouldn’t get one dime of the $8.6 million of taxpayer dollars they’re seeking for their axed landfill unless they come clean and make public what they’re asking for.

The companies have cited “business confidential” and “attorney-client privilege” as reasons for their paltry documentation on the money they claim to have spent on the Riegel Ridge Green Swamp landfill.

Documentation on a Camden County landfill proposed by another company is voluminous and available for public inspection.

Riegel Ridge and Waste Management have the documentation – about 800 pages – but the public is allowed to see very little of it.

We have to wonder why.

There shouldn’t be much in the Green Swamp landfill proposal that would qualify for the “trade secret” exemption; after all, the supporting documentation should be public record since it has had to be thoroughly reviewed by state and federal environmental regulatory agencies. So what are these trade secrets? What do they not want us to see?

Let’s hope the N.C. Department of Justice takes a hard stance on these two companies. The Justice Department needs to make a thorough audit and also determine what, if anything, qualifies as attorney-client privilege or as a trade secret.

Maybe Riegel Ridge and Waste Management can account for every penny, but stunts like this make one wonder why we were doing business with these folks in the first place.