News | December 7, 2024

North Carolina’s largest landfill to end pollution and address environmental injustice  

A community bearing decades of pollution gets justice
Since the Sampson County Landfill opened in 1973, generations of rural Roseboro residents have faced severe consequences to their health and quality of life. (Cornell Watson)

It’s 3 a.m. in the community of Snow Hill when the first round of semi-trucks hauling tons of regional waste come rolling into dump at North Carolina’s largest landfill. The facility operates seven days a week and the smell of the nearly 1,000-acre dump site, which one local describes as a “greasy, oily” smell “like decaying flesh,” permeates the air. 

In early December, this small community celebrated a significant victory when a federal judge approved a settlement between the landfill owners and the Environmental Justice Community Action Network, a local organization represented by SELC. 

The agreement requires GFL to essentially eliminate toxic PFAS discharges to surface waters, address longstanding odor and air quality concerns, and provide community-led relief to this rural, predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood for the first time in decades. 

This agreement brings long-sought relief from pollution and reparation to the Snow Hill community, putting resources and information in the community’s hands to care for their safety and health and start rebuilding after decades of ignored concerns

Sherri White-Williamson, EJCAN

A long history of injustice

Since the Sampson County Landfill was first established in 1973, in the rural, historically Black, Roseboro community of Snow Hill, generations of neighbors have borne the brunt of the Landfill’s pollution and organized against this longstanding environmental injustice.

Over the Snow Hill community’s opposition, the landfill was privatized and expanded in 1992, prior to GFL’s ownership. Major industrial manufacturers from across the state, such as Chemours, sent PFAS-contaminated industrial waste to the landfill for decades. Today, the landfill spans nearly 1,000 acres and accepts over 1.8 million tons of waste annually — and members of this eastern North Carolina community are still grappling with the consequences.

This includes years toxic PFAS in their drinking water wells, surface water, and groundwater. Recent testing from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality confirms unsafe – and in some instances, extremely high – levels of these forever chemicals in waters surrounding the landfill. 

Local environmental justice leader Sherri White-Williamson pictured outside her office. (Cornell Watson)

“This agreement with GFL to address toxic PFAS pollution, meaningfully investigate and address emissions from the landfill, and fund community-led remediation efforts provides crucial relief and empowers the Snow Hill community to repair and look forward,” said Staff Attorney Maia Hutt. “Our hope is that this agreement provides a foundation upon which the Snow Hill community can build a safe, healthy future.”  

In eastern North Carolina, the same communities poisoned by the landfill are constantly exposed to chemicals that include known carcinogens, distressing noises, and rancid odors from various industries that continue to put profit over people.  

Hog and poultry operations that generate millions of tons of manure and wood pellet facilities that export trees from Southern forests to Europe dominate the list here, but the pattern of disproportionately dumping pollution on communities of color — primarily Black, Latino, and Indigenous people — is one that persists throughout the South and beyond. 

All communities deserve clean water.

Maia Hutt, Staff Attorney

Thriving communities and a healthy environment for all people, regardless of race or wealth, is possible. 

From fighting pollution and revitalizing neighborhoods to elevating local voices in decision making, SELC stands alongside all Southern communities as they face outsized industry pollution, dangerous pipelines, and destructive highway expansions. 

A healthy and safe environment for all is possible.