Limits on Landfills, NC
SELC Defends Law That Protects Sensitive Resources, Special Places
SELC Keeps Lid on Mega-Landfills
SELC has successfully defended a law we helped pass that prevents oversized and inappropriately sited landfills from threatening North Carolina’s coasts, wetlands, wildlife, and other natural treasures.
Waste Industries USA, which wants to build a mega-landfill in coastal Camden County, filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007. The law places a cap on the size of new landfills and prohibits their construction within two miles of a state park and within five miles of a national wildlife refuge.
SELC entered the suit last spring to defend the law and secured a ruling on September 13 in Wake County Superior Court that keeps the statute intact.
By defeating the challenge and by preparing to defend this law in the appeals process, we are, preventing Waste Industries from building a landfill that would be too big and too close to the Dismal Swamp State Park and the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge—places renowned for their wetland forests and other ecological riches.
Case Summary
- places reasonable limits on the size of new landfills;
- provides protections for scenic rivers, critical fisheries, sensitive wetlands, and endangered species; and
- shields minority communities from the negative impacts of waste disposal sites.