Preservation in the News

Opinion

North Carolina won’t have a Trash Can Range after all.

The General Assembly, in its late hours last week, wisely approved a controversial solid-waste management-reform bill that will likely keep the rest of the East Coast states from using North Carolina as a dumping ground.

A year ago, the legislature put a one-year moratorium on the licensing of new landfills. Legislators were reacting to plans to build six mega-landfills in the eastern third of the state.

The trash would have been piled so high that the landfills would have constituted the tallest points in their respective counties. Three of the landfills would have been taller than the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, which stands 208 feet high.

No wonder opponents began calling the dumps the Trash Can Range of Eastern North Carolina - a region that is overwhelmingly flat otherwise.

The trash heaps also would have shown up in some pretty inappropriate places. One, for example, would have been close to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. No doubt, the hundreds of thousands of migrating waterfowl would have loved the luscious offerings a huge dump would have afforded them on their Atlantic Coast travels. But, for ecotourists and environmentalists, such a siting would have represented defeat grasped from the hands of victory, in light of the likely federal decision to keep the Navy’s Outlying Landing Field away from there.

North Carolina cannot ban trash from outside the state. That would violate the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. But before the legislature passed this law last week, North Carolina was almost inviting the Northeastern states to send us their garbage. In fact, some counties were trying hard to get the facilities. In some impoverished portions of the East, landfill jobs would have been warmly welcomed.

Other factors making North Carolina attractive included the relatively low price of land and the absence of a statewide disposal tax, something our neighbors already charge.

So, the legislature instituted a $2-per-ton disposal fee and stronger setback provisions from streams, state parks, game lands and national wildlife refuges. That should end all plans for building mega-dumps here.

Taxpayers will pay a price. The industry made friends in the legislature who would not agree to protect North Carolina and its environment without first protecting the landfill operators. So, taxpayers will reimburse the landfill operators for some of their planning costs if they have to abandon their plans.

Still, the legislature did the right thing here in protecting North Carolina from a mountain range full of trash.