DENR official closes illegal landfill

By Lisa Majors-Duff

This private, family landfill (above) off Woodfin Road near Balsam was closed last month by order of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Used by about a half dozen families since the 1940s, the landfill was burned off until the 1970s, when state clean air regulations were adopted. DENR Environmental Technician Janet Cantwell said those who have used the illegal dump will be responsible for cleaning it up. She estimated about 1,000 dump truck loads of household garbage, whitegoods and other material may be removed from the site. While state statutes give DENR the authority to stop ongoing dumping, little can be done about indiscriminate dumping (below), which produced this tire dumping site off Crawford Cemetery Road, Cantwell said. - Herald photos by Lisa Majors-Duff

The landfill, which until about two weeks ago had been used by about six families to dispose of household waste, is located on Woodfin Road, within 2 miles of the Balsam staffed recycling center. The illegal dump must be cleaned up by those who used it, said DENR Environmental Technician Janet Cantwell, or fines of $5,000 a day could be assessed.

"The property owner and those who used the dump site will be responsible for making sure it is cleaned up," said Cantwell, who estimated more than 1,000 dump truck loads could be removed from the site. If the property owner is unable to clean up the dump site, state officials may allow it to be buried, with the existence of the landfill permanently recorded on the deed, she said.

Cantwell and Heather Leclair, Jackson County's solid waste technician, were alerted to the landfill's existence by a resident of Woodfin Road who asked not to be identified. The dump site was responsible, he said, for attracting rats, which eventually found their way into his front yard a few hundred feet away.

Cantwell visited and assessed four sites last month that had been reported to the Jackson County solid waste office for possible violations. The illegal dump on Woodfin Road was one of two sites she shut down. The second is owned by the town of Sylva, where crews have been piling brush without the proper permits.

Town officials will be required to apply with DENR for a treatment processing permit in order to continue piling brush on their property in the old watershed on Fisher Creek Road. Until the permit is approved, the material must be delivered to a properly-permitted landfill, she said.

Illegal dumping activities include burying without a permit, open burning of waste, open dumping on an unpermitted site, filling with anything other than inert debris and disposal of materials in water.

State regulations do not address the situations found at two of the sites she visited, Cantwell said. One involved the indiscriminate dumping of about 500 tires off Crawford Cemetery Road near Balsam; the other involved an individual property owner who is collecting his household waste in his yard near Barkers Creek.

A neighbor has complained that the Crawford Cemetery tires produce mosquito swarms in the summer months, but with no one known to be responsible for the tires, little can be done. If the person who reported the tires were to see someone dumping, a littering ticket might be issued, Cantwell said.

According to state littering statues, "any person who violates this section in an amount exceeding 500 pounds or in any quantity for commercial purposes... is guilty of a Class I felony." Punishment may include one point on the violator's drivers license or the vehicle used in the crime may be seized.

Disposing of amounts between 15 and 500 pounds can result in a Class 3 misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of between $100 and $1,000. Amounts of less than 15 pounds can result in a fine of between $100 and $500. Also according to the statute, "it shall be the duty of all law enforcement officers to enforce the provisions of this section."

The reason nothing can be done to the Barkers Creek property owner, said Cantwell, is simple. State statutes prohibit DENR from interfering with an individual or individual family or household unit when they are disposing of their individual waste on their own property.

While state authorities cannot step in, county health departments can, she said. If the local health director determines a public health nuisance exists, he or she may issue an order to the property owner to take the necessary steps to fix the problem. If the property owner refuses, the health director can get a court order against the property owner. If the property owner further refuses, a lien can be placed on the property for the costs associated with cleaning up the problem.

"You can look just about anywhere and see things that have been illegally dumped," Cantwell said. "Some people are looking for the easiest way around the law; some don't know the law."

Responsible for the state's 17 westernmost counties, Cantwell said it is impossible for her to address the hundreds of complaints she gets every week. Instead, she said, the focus of her job is to monitor building contractors who are working for a profit and trimming off expenses by illegally dumping to avoid tipping fees at permitted landfills.

"I love my job," she said. "I get to work outside a lot, and I get to meet a lot of neat people. And I do my best to treat them as I would want to be treated."

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