NCD980602163_19821027_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Public Meeting (with Questions)-OCR

PUBLIC MEETING ON WARREN COUNTY PCB LANDFILL
Warrenton National Guard Armory
Wednesday, October 27, 1982
6:30-8:30 p.m.
As promised by Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. in his recent meeting with
representatives of the Warren County Concerned Citizens, the state is
sponsoring this public meeting so state officials, engineers and scientists
can review the construction and safety features of the PCB landfill near
Afton, the state's plans for environmental and health monitoring around
the landfill, and other issues related to PCB. We also will attempt to
respond to your specific concerns and questions.
Following is a list of participants on the panel:
Heman R. Clark, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Crime
Control and Public Safety, moderator.
Dr. Sarah T. Morrow, Secretary of the North Carolina Department of
Human Resources.
Dr. Al Turner, Associate Professor, Environmental Management,
Department of Sanitary Engineering, UNC-CH School of Public Health.
William Meyer, Environmental Engineer, Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch,
Division of Health Services, North Carolina Department of Human Resources.
Joseph S. Lennon, Warren County Health Director.
Dr. Ronald H. Levine, State Health Director, North Carolina Department
of Human Resources.
Leonard Blanton, Director of the Division of Food and Drug Protection,
North Carolina Department of Agriculture.
Dr. Bernard G. Greenburg, Dean Emeritus and Kenan Professor,
Department of Biostatistics, UNC-CH School of Public Health.
QUESTIONS--T-HAT MAY ARISE AT THE PCB PUBLIC MEETING, October 27
1. Professor Montague of Princeton University in a study of four EPA approved
landfills in New Jersey found that all four leak. Why should we believe this
landfill is going to be any better?
2 . The EPA requires hazardous waste landfills to be built on hard clay
pan . This site does not qualify on that basis. Why did the EPA grant an
exemption for this requireme nt?
3. The EPA requires a so~foot separation from the bottom of the landfill
to the top of the water table. This site is only five f eet from the water
table. How can you sit there and tell us this landfill won~t contaminate
our ground water supplies?
4. Those leachate collection system in the landfill won't be worth a
plug nickle. The material in the landfill will settle and they will be-
come clogged up with silt. How are they going to help protect us?
5. According to Dr. Montague's study, that cap you're going to place
on the landfill won't be worth anything e ither. The fill inside the
landfill will settle)and the cap will crack once it does letting in
water and turning that landfill into a bathtub. Also, how are you going
to keep animals from burrowing into the cap and destroying it?
6. That plastic liner isn't going to protect anything. I was out at
the site while they were patching the slashes in the liner/and I know
for a fact those slashes weren't properly fixed. We've got the pictures
to prove it, too. And once I protested that the liner wasn't llhi fixed
.,properly, they closed the site to the public so we couldn't go out and
inspect what was being done. That landfill won't protect anything. It's
a crime against=the citizens of Warren County?
''
7. Why should we ' have to take this mess? We don't have any industry
which produces hazardous waste, Why should we be the guinea pigs for
your experiment with hazardous waste control?
, I
8. You say you chose Warren County for the la~dfill because .it was a superior
area technically. But EPA listed Warren County fifth out of the six sites
being considered as finalist for the landfill. How come if we were fifth
we got to be number one if it wa~nit for racial and political consideration.
You just thought you could bowl us over because we're a small, predominantly
black and poor county ,
9. You threatened Chatham County with condemnation to get their property
for a landfill. But when they decided to fight you backed off. But you
went ahead and threatened the property owner with condemnation when he
sought to back out of the deal you made with him for his land. It just
proves that you picked on us because we're small and powerless.
10. That good clay soil you~re talking about going into the make up
of that landfill isn't any good at alL Our soil scientist, Dr, Mulk~i
of the Univ, of Maryland, says that soil is not good for landfill con..-.
struction. How is it going to protect the environment!
11. How are those four monitorin9 wells around the landfill going to
protect us? The PCB is just going to lea.k between them and will get
into the environment before it can be detected.
12. What measures has the state taken to protect us from the dirt and
dust impregnated with PCB that has been dropped on N.C. 1604 by trucks
hauling material to the landfill?
13. Why didn't the state ship the PCB soil out of state? The operators
of the Emelle. Alabama landfill quali:t;ied to take I;>CB said the~ would
have taken the material. Obyiously !-the state put cost aboye the welfare
of the citizens.of Warren County,
·, 14. Is the sta.te going to monitor the wildlife in County for
i PCB? It's hunting season up here now. Whols going to p~y to have the
game :analyzed .to see ¼fits safe to eat?,
: i i p ! I ' ' I ' I 15. Who is going ' to reirobu:r;se the ~armer and .9r9-we.:q, ff:r;-their crops
losses when ' they· can l·t sell thei:i;-produce on the .market or have to take
reduced prices because it comes from Warren County? we \ already have
one landowner who has lost a chicken farming operation because his land
is near the landfill,
Governor Hunt promised that any citizen who wanted a blood t est to see 16.
i:fsECB .::was ·getting into their systems could get one from the state. But
our experts tell us that a blood test will do little detect whether PCB
is getting into your body. What good is that to us?
17. Who is going to indemify the property owners in the Afton area for
the losses they will suffer in property values because of the landfill's
presence. Pope '·s place was evaluated at $33,000 when it was put on the
market recently, but it cost $54 /ooo to build.
18. I'm an expectant mother who lives less than a mile tram that landtill.
What's going to happen to my baby? Will I be able to breast feed my child?
You have robbed me of one of the most cherished nurturing qualities a
mother has. What you have done is a crime.
19. You say you deeded over control of the buffer zone to Warren County
so we could be sure nothing else would go into the landfill, But we don't
have control of it. You've put so many restrictions on the property that
we can't use it at all. What kind of control is that?
20. What is to keep more hazardous waste dumps from being put into I•!arren
County now that you've got your PCB landfill in here? It's obvious Jim
Hunt used this PCB situation to get a landfill built in North Carolina
and prove to big industry, the big polluters, that North Carolina was
hospitable to dirty industry . This is all just one big consprir~9y between
Hunt and big industry.
21. Warren County is 66 percent black ,. it only has 17 ,·ooo pe.9ple·.:in j_ t,
I
It's poor, It has major medical p~0blems, It's poli ti~ally powerless,.
I I '
Do you really expect us to believe that politics wasn't a consideration
in the placement of this landfill? How dumb do you think we are?
22. That stuff has been lying on the roadside for more than four years
now . It's been rained on, frozen, driven over, eroded and whatelse, Why
pick it up now and put it up here._ Why not just leave it on the road?
23 . You've said that EPA told the state it had to pickup the PCB from
the roadside. But when we met with EPA officials at the Research Triangle
they said they never told the state to pickup the PCB from the roadside.
Who's right?
24. What are you going to do with all that water that got into the landfill
during the rain this weekend? How are you going to take care of that?
25. Governor Hunt promised us he would push for deotoxification of the
PCB in the landfill when the technology becomes available. But Mr. Hanke
of EPA was quoted in an article Monday as saying that the likelihood of
detoxification of the landfill is "slim to none." Is the state still
going to press for detoxification?