The Guilford County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a public hearing for Thursday, May 16 to consider whether the county should allow for the expansion of a landfill in southeastern Guilford County and also whether it should permit the landfill to accept more debris and greatly extend the time it can remain open.
The A-1 Sandrock Inc. Construction and Demolition Landfill is requesting that the county commissioners approve a “franchise modification” to its existing agreement with the county. One of those changes, if approved, would allow vertical, or upward, expansion of the landfill from its original height limit of 150 feet to 185 feet.
Another change would also increase the maximum amount of construction and demolition debris accepted at the landfill from 300 tons per day to 500 tons per day.
In addition, the county commissioners have been asked to extend the franchise term limit from the 10-year term that was approved in October 2013 to “life-of-site, not to exceed 60 years.” That way, the site permit would be good until the year 2073, at which time all construction debris will probably be transported to nearby planets.
However, according to a county document pertaining to the request, the “projected useful life of the landfill, measured from 2019, is approximately 20 years given its current design and footprint.”
The landfill takes in debris from construction and demolition sites; items accepted include lumber, concrete, cardboard, stumps, bricks, asphalt, plastic and sheet rock.
Some items that the landfill doesn’t allow are household waste, such as food scraps and other items like paints, liquids and solvents. It also doesn’t accept batteries, radioactive materials, poisonous materials or industrial waste.
Currently, the landfill employs about 35 full-time workers and charges $36 per ton for dumping.
Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Alan Branson said he hasn’t heard much feedback regarding the proposal and he added that the area near the landfill contains only a few residents so he’s not expecting to see a lot of opposition to the move.
Landowners with connecting property have been notified by mail of the proposal that currently looks like it will pass easily. Of course, the county must hold the May 16 public hearing before any action is taken and those have been known to change things before.
The mega site in Rockingham County would be the perfect place for the landfill. The land is much too far away from utilities and services that will ever make it useful for anything else. And it would save Greensboro millions of dollars. This would be the responsible and best decision the City can ever make!!!