NCD980602163_19810119_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_PCB Disposal-OCR

RUFUS L. EDMISTEN
ATTORNEY GENERAL
MEMORANDUM
TO:
FROM:
RE:
~hdr of ~orlq Oiarolina
~epurtment of J)ustice
P. O. Box 629
RALEIGH
27602
19 January 1981
Burley !~.i tchell, Dave Kelly, /4.ck Cozort, Bob Adams,
Page Benton, John Freeman,~ii Myer, Barney O'Quinn,
Frank Vick
W. A. Raney, Jr.~
PCB Disposal
After our meeting on January 13, 19 81 I revielved the final
EIS and discussed it with Frank Vick and Barney O'Quinn. There
is no question that the final EIS does not specifically address
the cornments which Warren County submitte d concerning the draft
EIS. Since the entire purpose of pre p a ring a draft and a final
EIS is to give the public an opportunity to comment anc:1. to
require the agency to consider and r e spond to the co~ments, I
do not believe we have much of an argument that we have complied
with the N. C. Environmental Policy Act and our own regulations .
My recommendation is to admit that l,Je have faile d to follow
the appropriate procedure and to pre pare very thorough and pro-
fessional responses to the comments submitted by Warren County.
The better our responses are the easier it will he to argue the
sufficiency of the final EIS when and if we are required to do
so in court.
Many of their comments are directe d at the landfill design
and due to our consultant 's work in this area we are now in a
better position to respond thoroughly to these coroments. I
believe it would be worth discussing the possibility of having
the consulting contract amended to secure the services of the
consultants in providing responses to all of Warren County's
comments. In my view a truly professional response to the
comments will take quite a bit of time and in-depth research.
The attorney for Warren County has once again contacted me
concerning possible settlement of the suit. In view of this new
/
-2-
development on the EIS we might want to reconsider their
proposals. You will recall that we discussed their latest
suggestions at a previous meeting. I have attached a copy of
their proposal and my response to refresh your recollection
of the possible settlement terms.
One additional item which surfaced at the meeting on
January 14 was the question of who was going to be responsible
for construction and operation of the landfill. The consultants
suggested that a contractor be hired to handle that portion of
the project.
I believe we should attempt another meeting as soon as
possible to discuss these questions. My secretary will be
contacting you soon to see if we can find a suitable time for
everyone.
/ck
Attachments