Date:
Location:
Orange County Community Organizations Join Forces to Oppose Waste Transfer Station
The Orange County Organizing Committee (OCOC) has come forward to support the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association (RENA) and the Coalition to End Environmental Racism (CEER) in their on-going efforts to oppose the building of the proposed Orange County Solid Waste Transfer Station at the present site of the Orange County Landfill.
The Eubanks Road landfill site is immediately adjacent to the historic Rogers Road neighborhood, home to a vibrant African American community for more than 150 years. The Rogers Road community has borne the burdens of living with Orange County's garbage for 36 years, and now the Eubanks Road landfill site is near the top of the list of proposed sites for the Waste Transfer Station.
Supporters of this community-wide effort to block the siting of a Waste Transfer Station on Eubanks Road are encouraged to join the large community turnout on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of County Commissioners Waste Transfer Station work-session will be held at the Southern Human Services Center, at 2501 Homestead Rd., Chapel Hill.
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The Orange County Organizing Committee is a broad-based, non-partisan organization of dues-paying member congregations, associations, neighborhoods and non-profits committed to building power for sustainable social and economic change. OCOC is affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the oldest and largest national organizing and leadership development network in the United States.
The Coalition to End Environmental Racism (CEER) and the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association (RENA) consist of residents of the Rogers Road community along with residents of Orange County and members of UNC. They have been working on the Waste Transfer Station relocation issue since April 2007.
For more information contact:
RENA/CEER: Minister Robert Campbell, 933-6210
RENA/CEER: Neloa Jones, 360-1364
OCOC: Tish Galu, 225-2986
Background information at: http://rogersroad.wordpress.com/
Comments
It is time for the BOCC to stop playing games and politics
Where do you think this
Do you think that it is
Do you think that it is JUST or MORAL that ONE community CONTINUE to sacrafice its quality of life for ALL of Orange County? Where do YOU think the transfer station should go? Whose community do YOU think should be impacted by what many have claimed is a MUCH LESSER BURDEN than that already suffered by the Rogers-Eubank Community for 36 years?
start playing politics
The answer to your question
The answer to your question is anyplace but Eubanks.
This community has borne this burden for Orange County for 3 1/2 decades. There property values have failed to keep up. The quality of the air, water and yards have degraded by the proximity to this facility. Their political power diminished by splitting the neighborhood into different jurisdictions. 3 1/2 decades of this is enough. Any Orange County resident who produces garbage owes this community big time.
Eubanks has been the easy political answer for the BOCC and the towns. For the BOCC to continue this, for Orange County residents to allow this to continue is immoral.
lets' dump our trash
History of failed leadership
No one wants to be the dumping ground
Rural Orange County, which is often the dumping ground for in-town waste and spillover, no longer wants the reponsibility for Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough's garbage. The failure to plan the growth and infrastructure of these towns somehow is often at the cost of the beautiful farms and rural landscape that we cherish. No we are not ususally African American - but we are also not weathy and our perspective is rarely sought. If Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough are having a social justice problem, please dont dump it on the rural community. Start taking responsibility for your own waste!
(and I'd hope that the commissioners would consider multi-point solutions - what they do for the towns can be completely different than their solution for the rural county. We make a lot less garbage -- and dont worry we dont need to site our waste storage in Chapel Hill)
The BOCC still has not excluded Eubanks
According to the DTH the BOCC still has not excluded Eubanks. The commissioners seem unable to get there heads out of a dark place and put an end to their folly. However, Eubanks is rated number 4. Is this just a case of separation anxiety or maybe they are addicts that have not completed the rehab process since Eubanks is all they have ever known?
http://www.dailytarheel.com/news/city/possible_waste_sites_down_to_7Social Justice for All
Why aren't we looking at relocating the Rogers road community. Once we close the landfill - these citizens will be living next to a closed landfill, animal shelter, UPS freight site, railroad tracks and other municipal services. Plus - -would you drink that groundwater? We certainly dont want municipal services to sprawl all over the county- Eubanks Road is a great place to concentrate them.
If we understood the full costs of re-siting the waste station and the additional costs to towns to ship garbage further, might we find that it will be cost effective to relocate the Rogers Road community to a clean, unemcumbered location where any of us would be proud to live and raise our family. If we projected our longer term municipal service needs, we certainly could make this work well for the Rogers Road citizens
Over the next 30-50 years, we will certainly need substantial land resources and Eubanks road is a great place to concentrate them. Moving the Rogers Road community and designating Eubanks Road as a concentrated municipal services center could prevent municipal sprawl and offer a win-win for everyone.
"Social Justice for All" Really?
The historic Rogers Road neighborhood has been around since slavery times and is a very cohesive neighborhood. You are talking about houses and land that has been in family hands for generations.
There is more here than just dollars and cents.
This is not first time someone without an understanding of this neighborhood has asked that question. I suggest you directly ask some members of the Rogers Road neighborhood face to face what they think of your suggestion.
How about we move Meadowmont instead.
The Rogers Road community is the last neighborhood that should be asked to sacrifice anything else by anybody in Orange County.
Or...
Tell you what, anonymous, if you're uncomfortable living in a community that values environmental and social justice we can relocate you out of Orange County, I'm thinking maybe Cary would be a more appropriate habitat? It seems easier than explaining to you that we cannot and usually should not move whole communities and if we want their social fabric to remain intact.
Environmental Justice