DENR launches burning investigation

By Lisa Majors-Duff

Jackson County 911 emergency dispatch received a call Jan. 26 that someone had "illegally dumped and burned" paper in Wayehutta community, said emergency management coordinator Mike Ensley. Members of the Cullowhee Fire Department, as well as deputies with the Jackson County Sheriff's Department, were called to respond to the Gregg Thomas residence, he said. "I was burning the paper," Thomas said Tuesday. "That is correct."

Thomas said the recyclable paper was collected in the Sylva town limits during his time as owner and operator of Country Collections. It was being stored in the Tuckaseigee Mills plant, which Thomas had planned to convert to a recycling center, said Sylva Fire Marshal Jim Aust. But the building was not up to code for this type of operation, Aust said, and the paper stored there was creating a fire hazard.

Thomas, who sold his business interests in Country Collection last month to Bobby Gunter and Bud Boynton, said he felt obligated to clean up Tuckaseigee Mills since he had initiated the lease of the property. Country Collections' new owners "refused the lease of the plant" and "refused to take the recycling," Thomas said.

Gunter refuted Thomas' account, saying that he had extended the Tuckaseigee Mills lease through the end of January by paying the rent and a $500 utility bill. He said he and Boynton had arranged for the plant to be cleaned out when Thomas worked out a deal with the landlord to once again lease the building. Thomas then had the locks changed and banned Country Collections personnel from the property, Gunter said.

As a condition of his separation from Country Collections, Thomas said he is restricted from processing recyclable materials, and, in fact, has been restricted from using the Webster Enterprises recycling center in Dillsboro. Gunter and Boynton confirmed that they had asked Thomas not to bring recyclable materials to Dillsboro because his loads are often contaminated by non-recyclable items.

With these conditions in mind, Thomas said he chose to take the paper to his Wayehutta home and burn it.

Thomas, who is now self-employed as a commercial waste hauler, said he was unaware that burning the paper is a crime.

"It's just paper," he said. "The ashes were going to go into my garden. Whatever trouble I get into, I'm perfectly willing to accept it. I didn't think what I was doing was illegal."

Sheriff's Department deputy Shannon Queen's report of the burning incident, which included a rubber truck tire, was passed on to county solid waste technician Heather Leclair, who said Thomas, as a private hauler in Jackson County, should have known that disposal options other than burning were available to him.

"He could have used any of the staffed recycling centers," she said. "He could have used the Macon County landfill and paid his own tipping fees."

But the amount of paper in storage at Tuckaseigee Mills was too great to be disposed of at an SRC, Thomas said, and it would have been cost prohibitive to dispose of in Macon County.

Steve Ensley with DENR's Division of Air Quality has taken up the burning investigation. Thomas will have 20 days to respond to a letter from DENR outlying the violation of state open burning rules. After that time, a complete enforcement packet will be forwarded to Raleigh, where higher-ups at DENR will determine if a penalty is warranted, Steve Ensley said.

According to DENR's "Don't Get Burned" pamphlet, "...only leaves, branches and other plant growth can be burned - nothing else. That means no trash, lumber, tires or old newspapers." Substantial fines can be assessed for violating these rules, even for minor or first-time violations, the pamphlet points out.

As owner of Country Collections, Thomas negotiated contracts to collect residential trash, as well as residential and commercial recycling, for the town of Sylva. He also subcontracted with Webster Enterprises to operate the Dillsboro recycling center, where all recycling material from the county's SRC is processed.

Back to Archive: 01/31/02.