Former Mayor Yvonne Johnson was
among roughly a half-dozen African-American northeast Greensboro residents
who told the Greensboro Human
Relations Commission on April 7 that they
would like to see the White Street Landfill
remain closed.
Johnson characterized the impact of the landfill on surrounding residents as “heavy traffic, trucks, sometimes garbage has fallen off of trucks, bad odors, various kinds of animals like big, fat rats and so on and so forth.” Since the landfill stopped accepting municipal solid waste in the past decade, the former mayor said the area saw some improvements in economic development and housing with the opening of Wal-Mart and Lowes.
Johnson said that discussions about the possibility of reopening the landfi ll that have taken place over the past two years are dividing the city. Without mentioning by name Joe Williams, a prominent local African-American lawyer who is promoting a proposal by one vendor to make White Street a regional, privately operated landfill, Johnson staked out a different position.
“It’s very interesting that many of the proposals that have come in have financial benefits for the community and that’s because they probably feel that because of all the trucks and all the other things that they have to pay the community,” she said. “There are some things you can’t pay people to do. One is to sell their souls, and I won’t do that.”
Hugh Latham, the principal developer of Nealtown Estates, expressed the view that the city council’s ongoing discussion about the possible reopening of the landfill has hurt sales for his business. Latham said nine houses have been completed in the 28-lot subdivision, with two currently under construction. He warned that the city can expect lawsuits from neighboring residents whose property values he says will be depressed if the landfill is reopened. Noting the estimated cost savings of reopening the landfill — ranging from $1.5 million to $15 million — Latham said the city should weigh that against “the potential liability of forcing people’s mortgage’s underwater with one specific act.”
“Location, location, location is very important in real estate,” he said. “This one specific act will force people to reconsider [buying homes]. I have people coming to me, [asking], ‘Are they opening the landfill again?’ All I can say is, ‘Not right now.’ “I have all my life savings tied up in this,” Latham continued. “I thought I was doing a good thing. I was going on faith that the council said the landfill was closed. And I am going to hold them to their word.”
Beryl Battle, who has lived in the area since 1994, said she has had her house on the market for three years because she would like to move closer to her daughter.
“Very few people are viewing our house,” she said. “I know that the housing market is down. I think that reopening this landfill is going to hurt the community; it’s going to drain the home values. I don’t know if it is because of the mention of the landfill that we have not had an offer.”
The hearing was also attended by council members Jim Kee and Mary Rakestraw; assistant city managers Bob Morgan and Denise Turner; and Environmental Services Director Jeryl Covington. Chair Maxine Bakeman said the commission agreed to facilitate dialogue on the impact of the White Street Landfill on the surrounding community after being approached by Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro.
Bakeman and longtime resident Howard Fields recently appeared on “The Bottom Line with Bob Davis” on 90.1 WNAA FM, the campus station at NC A&T University, to promote the hearing. In addition to teaching sociology at A&T and hosting the public affairs program on 90.1, Davis serves as the interim chair of Concerned Citizens. Bakeman said the event was also publicized with fl iers posted around northeast Greensboro. Bakeman said the commission intends to avoid taking sides on the landfi ll question, and instead facilitate discussion and compile information. A second forum will be held in the community in May, and Bakeman said she is trying to identify experts from the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the Guilford County Public Health Department that can answer questions related to landfi lls and health. A report by the Guilford County Department of Public Health released in November concluded that there is no health risk to residents living near the EH Glass dump, which is located near the landfill, “and that further investigation, including community surveys, is unwarranted.” Some residents made anecdotal references to illness and disease in the community during the April 7 forum.
Linda Waddell said, “There were problems with birth defects. That has not been disclosed properly.” Fields said, “Death came right down my street.” After the hearing, he rattled off the names of six Belden Drive residents who have succumbed from cancer since the 1980s, adding that two of his neighbors currently have cancer.
Following questioning during the hearing by Commissioner Michael Roberto, Fields acknowledged, “We didn’t have any empirical data as far as the illnesses were concerned…. When it rained, runoff water from the privies ran into the wells.” The NC Central Cancer Registry released a study last fall finding that the rate of pancreatic cancer in the area near the landfill is significantly higher than expected, but cautioned against any assumption about causality. Its report noted that the development of residential property near the landfill “took place almost simultaneously with annexation of most of the area by the city of Greensboro, which meant that newcomers were soon using municipal water. Municipal water is supplied by lakes Townsend and Brandt, which are located far from the locations of the landfills, in a well protected watershed with no point-source pollution. The number of persons who have using well water in areas around the dumpsite and landfill, simultaneous with the operation of both, has not been determined, but is expected to be very low relative to the study area population as a whole.”
Fields and his neighbors live south of the landfill. The central cancer registry study states that ground and surface water fl ow in a northeasterly direction toward Buffalo Creek and its tributaries. Melvin DuBose, a member of the Penrose Estates community, said residents feel slighted by the vendors proposing to reopen the White Street Landfill and by some of the city’s leadership. In a March 26 letter to City Manager Rashad Young and members of council, DuBose said only a few of the several vendors proposing to privately handle the city’s solid waste have accepted an invitation to present their plans to the community. DuBose said that Young made a visit to the community, but Mayor Bill Knight has yet to do so.
That, coupled with the mayor’s refusal to apologize for a remark expressing the view that police Chief Tim Bellamy was selected because of race, has put a sour taste in Dubose’s mouth. “The new mayor, he was supposed to come out with the manager, but he never came out,” DuBose said. “Like the comment he made about the chief, it’s like he’s trying to divide the community.” Before the White Street Landfill was closed to municipal solid waste, residents had to contend with wet garbage falling out of trucks on nearby roadways.
“When people say, ‘Open up the landfill again,’ that’s the first thing they think,” he said.
Johnson characterized the impact of the landfill on surrounding residents as “heavy traffic, trucks, sometimes garbage has fallen off of trucks, bad odors, various kinds of animals like big, fat rats and so on and so forth.” Since the landfill stopped accepting municipal solid waste in the past decade, the former mayor said the area saw some improvements in economic development and housing with the opening of Wal-Mart and Lowes.
Johnson said that discussions about the possibility of reopening the landfi ll that have taken place over the past two years are dividing the city. Without mentioning by name Joe Williams, a prominent local African-American lawyer who is promoting a proposal by one vendor to make White Street a regional, privately operated landfill, Johnson staked out a different position.
“It’s very interesting that many of the proposals that have come in have financial benefits for the community and that’s because they probably feel that because of all the trucks and all the other things that they have to pay the community,” she said. “There are some things you can’t pay people to do. One is to sell their souls, and I won’t do that.”
Hugh Latham, the principal developer of Nealtown Estates, expressed the view that the city council’s ongoing discussion about the possible reopening of the landfill has hurt sales for his business. Latham said nine houses have been completed in the 28-lot subdivision, with two currently under construction. He warned that the city can expect lawsuits from neighboring residents whose property values he says will be depressed if the landfill is reopened. Noting the estimated cost savings of reopening the landfill — ranging from $1.5 million to $15 million — Latham said the city should weigh that against “the potential liability of forcing people’s mortgage’s underwater with one specific act.”
“Location, location, location is very important in real estate,” he said. “This one specific act will force people to reconsider [buying homes]. I have people coming to me, [asking], ‘Are they opening the landfill again?’ All I can say is, ‘Not right now.’ “I have all my life savings tied up in this,” Latham continued. “I thought I was doing a good thing. I was going on faith that the council said the landfill was closed. And I am going to hold them to their word.”
Beryl Battle, who has lived in the area since 1994, said she has had her house on the market for three years because she would like to move closer to her daughter.
“Very few people are viewing our house,” she said. “I know that the housing market is down. I think that reopening this landfill is going to hurt the community; it’s going to drain the home values. I don’t know if it is because of the mention of the landfill that we have not had an offer.”
The hearing was also attended by council members Jim Kee and Mary Rakestraw; assistant city managers Bob Morgan and Denise Turner; and Environmental Services Director Jeryl Covington. Chair Maxine Bakeman said the commission agreed to facilitate dialogue on the impact of the White Street Landfill on the surrounding community after being approached by Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro.
Bakeman and longtime resident Howard Fields recently appeared on “The Bottom Line with Bob Davis” on 90.1 WNAA FM, the campus station at NC A&T University, to promote the hearing. In addition to teaching sociology at A&T and hosting the public affairs program on 90.1, Davis serves as the interim chair of Concerned Citizens. Bakeman said the event was also publicized with fl iers posted around northeast Greensboro. Bakeman said the commission intends to avoid taking sides on the landfi ll question, and instead facilitate discussion and compile information. A second forum will be held in the community in May, and Bakeman said she is trying to identify experts from the NC Department of Health and Human Services and the Guilford County Public Health Department that can answer questions related to landfi lls and health. A report by the Guilford County Department of Public Health released in November concluded that there is no health risk to residents living near the EH Glass dump, which is located near the landfill, “and that further investigation, including community surveys, is unwarranted.” Some residents made anecdotal references to illness and disease in the community during the April 7 forum.
Linda Waddell said, “There were problems with birth defects. That has not been disclosed properly.” Fields said, “Death came right down my street.” After the hearing, he rattled off the names of six Belden Drive residents who have succumbed from cancer since the 1980s, adding that two of his neighbors currently have cancer.
Following questioning during the hearing by Commissioner Michael Roberto, Fields acknowledged, “We didn’t have any empirical data as far as the illnesses were concerned…. When it rained, runoff water from the privies ran into the wells.” The NC Central Cancer Registry released a study last fall finding that the rate of pancreatic cancer in the area near the landfill is significantly higher than expected, but cautioned against any assumption about causality. Its report noted that the development of residential property near the landfill “took place almost simultaneously with annexation of most of the area by the city of Greensboro, which meant that newcomers were soon using municipal water. Municipal water is supplied by lakes Townsend and Brandt, which are located far from the locations of the landfills, in a well protected watershed with no point-source pollution. The number of persons who have using well water in areas around the dumpsite and landfill, simultaneous with the operation of both, has not been determined, but is expected to be very low relative to the study area population as a whole.”
Fields and his neighbors live south of the landfill. The central cancer registry study states that ground and surface water fl ow in a northeasterly direction toward Buffalo Creek and its tributaries. Melvin DuBose, a member of the Penrose Estates community, said residents feel slighted by the vendors proposing to reopen the White Street Landfill and by some of the city’s leadership. In a March 26 letter to City Manager Rashad Young and members of council, DuBose said only a few of the several vendors proposing to privately handle the city’s solid waste have accepted an invitation to present their plans to the community. DuBose said that Young made a visit to the community, but Mayor Bill Knight has yet to do so.
That, coupled with the mayor’s refusal to apologize for a remark expressing the view that police Chief Tim Bellamy was selected because of race, has put a sour taste in Dubose’s mouth. “The new mayor, he was supposed to come out with the manager, but he never came out,” DuBose said. “Like the comment he made about the chief, it’s like he’s trying to divide the community.” Before the White Street Landfill was closed to municipal solid waste, residents had to contend with wet garbage falling out of trucks on nearby roadways.
“When people say, ‘Open up the landfill again,’ that’s the first thing they think,” he said.
