Campaign Unavailable

Last winter we asked you to contact North Carolina’s political leaders, urging them to take action against a flood of proposals for new solid waste landfills. At least five landfills have been recently proposed, mostly in poor, rural communities. If these landfills are built, North Carolina will become the fourth largest waste-importing state in the nation – and our rural communities will be set further behind in their efforts to attract clean, well-paying jobs and industries.

Thanks in part to thousands of your emails, NC’s leaders are taking action! The second week of the legislative session – Senator Clark Jenkins (Edgecombe-D), with support from the President pro-tem of the Senate, Marc Basnight (Dare-D), have introduced a bold proposal to stop all new landfills until January 2008.  H1093, Moratorium Imposed on New Landfills would establish a legislative commission to study landfill issues, including:

• how to keep landfills out of areas with high water tables or that are vulnerable to flooding (several of the current proposals would be sited in floodplains or wetlands);
• how North Carolina can recycle more and throw away less (in-state waste disposal has increased over 40% since 1990); and
• how to ensure that landfills are managed by responsible businesses (some proposals have involved dummy corporations and shady financing). 

The bill exempts existing landfills that need to expand a little to keep serving their customers – so it provides some flexibility for existing municipal, county, and private landfills.

WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP TO PASS THIS LEGISLATION! Within hours of the bill's introduction, representatives of big waste industries were on the phone and walking the halls of the legislature, trying to kill this bill. 

Please take a moment to send an email to strengthen your Representative's resolve. Tell them: North Carolina has a better future than becoming a dumping ground. Let’s enact H 1093 and put a hold on new landfills while we study and strengthen our solid waste laws.