Everyone knows it’s April showers that bring May flowers but it’s likely to be economic growth that is now bringing expansion requests from area landfills. In recent years there haven’t been a lot of requests in Guilford County but, on Thursday, May 16 Guilford County is hearing a request to expand A-1 Sandrock Inc. Construction and Demolition Landfill and also to extend the life of that landfill’s operations – and, on Monday, May 13, the City of High Point announced an upcoming public hearing to address another request: a proposed landfill expansion of about 20 acres of waste footprint located at the city’s Kersey Valley Municipal Solid Waste Landfill off of Kivett Drive.
On Monday, June 17, at 5:30 p.m. in the High Point City Hall Council Chambers, the council will hear details of the city’s proposed expansion and hold a public hearing on that proposal.
Information the city released in conjunction with the announcement of the public hearing stated that, based on projected waste acceptance rates, this landfill expansion is expected to benefit the city for about 20 years.
A half-acre of the 20-acre expansion will require annexation by the city. The 20-acre addition of the landfill will require a rezoning of the property to a “Heavy Industrial” designation. Also, in order for the project to move ahead, the City Council would have to approve a Special Use Permit to include the annexed and rezoned properties in the landfill’s boundary.
At the June 17 hearing, citizens and councilmembers will hear from representatives of the consultants hired by the city – Smith Gardner, Inc., of Raleigh. At that meeting, the consultants will provide information about the proposed site plans and waste management activities.
If the move is approved by the High Point City Council, documents that permit the expansion will be submitted to the NC Department of Environmental Quality Division of Waste Management for consideration.
The Kersey Valley landfill accepts construction debris, household waste, old appliances, pallets, shingles and related waste.
The other landfill expansion request on the table – the one being heard this week by Guilford County government – is a request by A-1 Sandrock in southeastern Guilford County for the Board of Commissioners to allow the site to pile the debris higher in the air but not to expand the borders. If approved, it would allow the vertical, or upward, expansion of the landfill from its original height limit of 150 feet to 185 feet.
That demolition landfill is also requesting that the county commissioners approve a “franchise modification” to its existing agreement with Guilford County that would increase the maximum amount of construction and demolition debris accepted at the landfill from 300 tons per day to 500 tons per day and 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 is, until the year 2073.
Unlike the Kersey Valley site, that A-1 Sandrock site doesn’t accept household waste such as kitchen trash bags that are full of used paper plates, plastic wrappers and food scraps.
