Another landfill approved for Snow Camp area
Alamance County’s governing board has given an area resident the all-clear to establish a new landfill for tree stumps and other inert debris in the unincorporated community of Snow Camp.
During a regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday, the county’s board of commissioners formally agreed to let Gordon Pike construct this land clearing and inert debris landfill on some 32 acres he owns at 4275 Euliss Road.
Pike, who resides just up the road from the proposed site of this ‘stump dump,’ assured the commissioners that his proposed operation wouldn’t pose any problems for the surrounding community.
“This will be only for trees, stumps, concrete, and rocks,” Pike told the commissioners before they signed off on his request. “The state has approved it…and we’ve jumped through all the hoops that the county has asked us to do.”
Under the county’s ordinance for heavy industrial development, landfills and other industrial ventures must meet certain criteria in order to set up shop in unincorporated parts of the county. The ordinance effectively guarantees a permit to any operation that ticks off all of the required boxes. At one point, these permits were originally issued administratively by the county’s planning director, although an outcry several years ago over the administrative approval of a stone quarry in Snow Camp convinced the commissioners to wrest back the authority to issue these permits.
As things currently stand, the commissioners are still obligated to approve any permit that meets the ordinance’s requirements. The request must nevertheless go through a cursory review by the county’s planning board as well as a public hearing before the commissioners themselves.
The public hearing for Pike’s proposed stump dump ultimately drew a smattering of remarks from property owners in the southern part of county. These comments included some negative feedback from Carol Davis, who identified herself as the owner of a family farm near the landfill’s proposed site.
During her appearance before the commissioners, Davis noted that her family currently leases the hunting rights for its land to a hunting club that she feared will be run off by the landfill’s activity. Davis also alluded to the presence of another land clearing and inert debris landfill just two miles away along with another equally proximate site for the disposal of construction and demolition debris.
“Does the Coble Township really need three landfills in a four-mile radius,” she went on to inquire, “which is what we’d have once this landfill is approved?”
Pike’s proposal received a much more glowing review from Henry Vines, a one-time candidate for the board of commissioners who happens to live in the project’s vicinity. Vines informed the commissioners that the landfill’s would-be developer also resides just up the road from the 32-acre site of this venture.
“I have no doubt that Gordon and his family will run this operation in the way it needs to be run,” Vines went on to assert, “and I don’t have a problem with him doing this landfill.”
These observations were echoed by Mike Wilson, who likewise touted his roots in the southern part of the county.
“I’ve known Gordon for a long time,” Wilson recalled, “He’s a good family man, and he would not put something there that’s a detriment to his family.”
The commissioners were quick to concur with this view of the landfill’s would-be proprietor before they gave their unanimous imprimatur to the requested permit.
See earlier deliberations on transferring the ownership of an existing construction debris landfill, also in Snow Camp: https://alamancenews.com/county-oks-multi-state-co-to-take-over-private-landfill-franchise/
Commissioners OK expansion of county landfill in Saxapahaw: https://alamancenews.com/commissioners-vote-to-expand-landfills-waste-disposal-area/
