The Greensboro News & Record Editorial Board on Trudy Wade and the White Street Landfill

“There’s no reason why every municipality has to build its own landfill. I believe there could be savings if we go about it on a regional basis.”

A candidate for county commissioner, Trudy Wade, said those words in 1996.

Fifteen years, later, city leaders haven’t settled on a long-term solution for where to put Greensboro’s garbage. Fifteen years later, they’re still talking trash, but with their sights focused almost solely on a stopgap measure rather than a lasting, regional answer. And, ironically, Wade, now a city councilwoman, is one of them.

Did anyone from the Editorial Board ask Trudy why she thinks what she thinks now,

or was it more convenient to use straw man rhetoric?

At issue is whether the city should abandon its recent practice of shipping its household garbage to Montgomery County and resume placing it in the White Street Landfill in northeast Greensboro. Heeding protests from landfill neighbors in 2006, the City Council decided to stop hauling household garbage there.

If the cost of reopening the landfill was about $8 million per year,

could it not have been a very good idea in the first place?

But, citing the potential to save between $7.6 million and $8.9 million a year, a thin majority on the current council, including Wade, effectively reversed that move last week by voting to go forward with the selection of a private company to operate the landfill.

Kind of makes sense to reopen the landfill, doesn't it?

...And it came with only token attempts at due diligence, with some critical questions left unanswered: For instance, what happens if the state says no to the new permits White Street would need to stay open beyond a few years?

If 3 x 8 = 24, won't the city save about $24,000,000 over three years?

Landfill opponents have argued that east Greensboro is the last, best option for future development in the city.

What about the whole Aerotropolis thing?

Is what the opponents saying actually true?

Is the Editorial Board citing the opponents instead of making the claim themselves

to avoiding some "due diligence", or finding out, and then have to say

 that the claim might not actually be so true?

...the reopened White Street Landfill could have 30 years of capacity left — or only six years, depending on whether the state allows it to expand. The city needs a surer, longer-term solution.

Agreed.

One such option might be Randolph County, where a proposed, 700-acre regional landfill in a rural area has been encouraged by state regulators and could save $1 million a year. That’s much less than the projected White Street savings, but it could deliver those savings for much longer, and less disruptively. (What price tag do you put on community trust and harmony?)

Is the state discouraging reopening the White Street Landfill?

Why not take $1 million per year, and start buying out properties around the landfill,

and have $7 million left over to pay for safety and social services?

To be fair, there are valid arguments to reopen the city landfill to household waste, especially in light of the current budget shortfall. But an issue as important as this one demanded a fair, thorough and open hearing. It didn’t get one.

Really?

Hasn't the city been debating the landfill for "Fifteen years later, they’re still talking trash"?

Citizens were made to feel marginalized and unheeded,

If a good chunk of those who felt marginalized

showed up at the meeting to heckle City Council

how can anyone say they were "unheeded"

if the only option they would accept would be keeping the landfill closed

which will limit safety and social services from budget cuts

to the same community? 

...leaving little room for such creative compromises as using White Street temporarily to plug the budget gap, then shifting to Randolph County.

Is this the Editorial Board's idea?

If the state doesn't let White Street expand,

isn't this the idea anyway?

If so, agreed.

Incidentally, candidate Wade also had some very specific thoughts about citizen input in 1996. “Citizens need to be treated with more respect,” she said. “They must be listened to.”

Should Trudy have been given the opportunity to respond?

Alas, that seems so long ago."

The Greensboro News & Record Editorial Board