No Waste Site in Residential Orange County

[Virginia Leslie]

Dear Commissioners:

I am writing to request that you deny Orange County Solid Waste's proposal to place a large waste and hazardous waste collection center on Orange Grove Rd.  I have written before and will again.  Today I send a few bullet points that in my estimation more than provide enough reason to deny this request.

• Public Safety:  The entrance/exit would be on a two-lane 55 mph road with no shoulders, on a curve in the road blocked by trees, DIRECTLY ACROSS FROM A SCHOOL BUS STOP AND A SHORT DISTANCE FROM ANOTHER.  This singular point alone makes the site completely unacceptable.  This is not simply ill-planned, it is crazy dangerous.  See map.

•  Public Health and Safety:  Note above the number of homes surrounding the proposed site.  Other county waste sites are in sparsely populated areas or next to commercial facilities. We live in a densely populated area of two covenant-protected neighborhoods, a trailer park, and other individual homes.  All 70+ homes near the proposed site rely on well water.  When asked directly at the second NIM, a professional engineer contracted by OCSW indicated that he could offer no guarantee that contaminants from the proposed site would not infiltrate citizens’ wells.  We already have contaminants from OWASA's dumping of sludge and even gasoline from stations in White Cross.  OCSW seems unconscionably oblivious to the dangers of poisoning families and their animals, as well as flora and fauna indigenous to the area.

•  Noise hazard to visitors as well as residents:  Besides the constant noise we will have to endure from truck and car traffic, banging canisters, beeping backup noises, etc., there are FIVE legal sport shooting ranges located near the proposed site, from 400 feet to 400 yards away.  I can tell you that even from a quarter mile away, this can be a nuisance.  How would that be for SW employees who have to work there?  How would it be for visitors?  Especially, how will it be for vets with PTSD?  I am from a military family and this would be a shocking lack of judgment.

•  Environmental Health: This site will take in HHW, hazardous household waste. The site sits in the middle of the confluence of two water systems, the Haw River floodplain and the Collins Creek watershed. (See maps) There are streams visible on GIS maps directly on the site that flow into a wetland and the Collins Creek floodplain.  Although this watershed is currently designated as “unprotected,” any runoff will flow to the Haw River and ultimately wind up in Jordan Lake, which is central to OWASA’s Long-Range Water Supply Plan OWASA Future Plan.  Runoff from the proposed site will also flow into the Collins Creek sub-basin, potentially imperiling 58+ acres of fragile wetland habitat (classified PHO1A by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) along its route to the Haw River.  Environmentalists report the proposed site is adjacent to an area where spotted salamanders migrate every winter to lay their eggs, a roosting site for great blue herons, and a flyway for bats that may be federally endangered.  We know it's spring when the spring peepers start up.  Frogs being very sensitive to contaminants in water, will they be silenced?  Please look carefully at the maps.  The proposed site would sit right in between two vital water systems and floodplains IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD.  Again, our drinking water comes from wells.

•  A Moral Choice:  "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."  Would you place this facility in your backyard?

I could write more about home values plummeting, quality of life eroding, noise and sound pollution, infestations of undesirable varmints, and other important topics, but for now, please see that ANY ONE OF THESE ABOVE FACTORS in any sane world would lead to denying OCSW permission to proceed.

We moved here for peace, connection with and an appreciation for the natural world.  It is our safe haven. Do not let that be destroyed by poor planning for a facility that does not belong here. There are better places and OCSW needs to get busy and find them, or better yet upgrade existing sites, which more county citizens seem to want, so that driving times are not increased.

I worked years ago to protect Rogers Road from the same thoughtless planning.  Not since have I seen such egregious assaults on human life and the environment. The need for this project is not clear as we have two functioning sites that can be upgraded.  And, there's plenty of unused land in the county, both owned by OWASA and private parties who would probably sell a parcel. There's just no need to place an industrial waste center inside an established residential area.

I would hope that Orange County will not set a precedent that residential land in the middle of existing neighborhoods can be appropriated for any use, including such toxic and invasive projects as this.  We are your constituents, and we are pleading for your common sense and compassion.

Sincerely, Virginia Leslie

Collins Creek subdivision