A citizens' group made up of residents of East Arcadia and the Columbus County, NC communities of Sandyfield, Bolton and Buckhead have banded together to fight a proposed landfill to be located adjacent to East Arcadia on the county line.
Called Citizens for a Safe and Vibrant Community, the group formed after the town of Sandyfield voted in March to enter into a 30-year franchise agreement with the developer, Fred Whitaker of Red and Fred Enterprises, according to a member of the group, Bladen County Commissioner Dr. Delilah Blanks.
Signs in opposition to the proposed landfill can be seen along the roads in and around the affected communities.
A map of the proposed site places it just outside the East Arcadia town limits.
The group has invited citizens from throughout the area to attend a public informational meeting to be conducted by staff members from the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Waste Management Division on September 29 at 6:30 p.m. at the East Arcadia Volunteer Fire Department located at 1665 East Arcadia Road in East Arcadia.
According to Blanks, the site near East Arcadia is not the first site in Columbus County on which the developer has attempted to gain approval to place a Construction and Debris landfill and recycling operation.
She said the initiative to develop a recycling and landfill operation began last year, when developer Fred Whitaker of Myrtle Beach, SC, and his partners, Donald J. "Red" Epperson Jr. and Herculano Sotoalso of Jackson, GA, approached the Columbus County Commissioners seeking to enter into a franchise agreement with them.
However, the Columbus County Commissioners, after considering Whitaker's financial situation and environmental infractions in a similar venture in South Carolina, declined to support the request, Blanks said. North Carolina General Statutes require companies seeking to establish landfills to enter into a franchise agreement with a government entity.
Blanks said that Whitaker was initially looking at a possible site in the Guideway community of Columbus County.
"There was such an uproar in Guideway, that he could not establish the site there," she said. "They were concerned about noise, increased truck traffic and construction debris falling unto the road. According to hearsay, he also approached the town of Bolton but was not successful there either."
Whitaker then approached the town of Sandyfield with the proposal. After conducting a public hearing on the issue in February, the town board voted in March to enter into the franchise agreement with Whitaker.
Blanks said the proposed venture would be located on a 115-acre tract, of which 50 acres would initially be used for recycling and disposal of construction debris. She added that according to figures used in petitioning for the landfill, the town would realize estimated revenues of approximately $100,000 per year from the operation.
According to the petition, the landfill would take construction debris from a 70-mile radius, including debris from International Paper and Wilmington construction projects.
Blanks points out, however, that the permit would allow construction debris to be brought to the site from throughout the state and possibly from South Carolina as well.
"The problem they have," said Blanks, "is that the site is closer to the town of East Arcadia than it is to Sandyfield. That means that, according to State Statutes, the town of Sandyfield cannot annex the area where the landfill is to be located without approval of the East Arcadia Town Board."
The site is within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Sandyfield, but the Bladen County town of East Arcadia lies between Sandyfield and the site. East Arcadia and Sandyfield share common town limits along the county line.
Blanks said that the town of Sandyfield did not notify East Arcadia initially of the proposal and that when area residents first heard of it, they were led to believe that it would be solely a recycling operation.
"The citizens were initially led to believe it was only a recycling facility to bring in demolition construction material to be separated, recycled and resold," she explained.
"The folks around here weren't opposed to that," she said. "It was only later that we found out that it was to be a recycling and landfill facility. According to a DENR official, the 48-acre landfill could be as high as 150 feet in height.
"When we became aware that the developer planned to locate a construction debris landfill on the site as well, opposition to the project erupted," she said.
"Whenever you have a landfill for construction debris, there is no telling what might be in the trash they bring in," Blanks said. "One thing that makes it such a concern to us is that the water table on the land where they plan to put the site is just below ground level. They're going to have to haul in loads and loads of dirt just to put the landfill there."
Blanks pointed out that the franchise agreement does not specify how much tonnage can be brought into the landfill annually-another concern of local residents.
"We don't want a 150-foot high landfill located in our backyard," she said.
According to Blanks, Whittaker states that he has already purchased the tract of land from International Paper.
"The law says that the town with the closest boundary with the site has to enter into an agreement with the annexing town before any annexation can take place," said Blanks.
On August 5, Alan Maynard, attorney for the town of East Arcadia, sent a letter to the town of Sandyfield stating that East Arcadia would not enter into an agreement to allow Sandyfield to annex the landfill site "under any circumstances."
Blanks said the opposition group formed on August 11 and began an active campaign to stop the proposed landfill from coming to the area.
"Right now it is stopped because Sandyfield cannot annex under the present law, because it has not entered into an agreement with East Arcadia," said Blanks.
"It (Sandyfield) would likely have to get legislative intervention before the Red & Fred C&D landfill proposal could go any further, I believe," she said. Elizabethtown (North Carolina) Bladen Journal.