Large Landfills

Large Landfills

The state announced plans last week to partially reimburse three groups that had planned to build large landfills in Eastern North Carolina before their proposals were blocked by a new state law. The N.C. Division of Waste Management determined that the groups were due a total of nearly $3 million for going through a permitting process before the rules changed last year.

The General Assembly adopted new construction standards, setting wider buffers between new landfills and environmentally sensitive areas such as national wildlife refuges, state gamelands and parks. As a result, landfills proposed by the companies were no longer eligible for consideration.

Each of the companies, however, contended they had already spent millions of dollars seeking state approval using the old rules. Under the agreement, the state will pay a portion of each company's application costs.

Alligator River Recycling, which proposed a landfill for construction and demolition debris in Hyde County, requested $2.4 million. The state will reimburse $742,000. Waste Industries USA and Black Bear Disposal, which had a municipal and solid waste landfill project pending in Camden County, requested $13.6 million. The state will reimburse them $775,000.
Riegel Ridge and Waste Management of the Carolinas, which had proposed a municipal and solid waste landfill in Camden County, requested $2.37 million. The state will reimburse them $1.6 million.

Some costs submitted for reimbursement were rejected if they were considered unreasonable or lacked documentation, the division said in a news release. The funds for reimbursement will come from a statewide tip fee of $2 per ton of waste disposed at landfills, which was part of the solid waste legislation enacted last year.

(THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 5/09/08).