North Carolina's new buffers separating landfills from wildlife refuges, state parks and game preserves are based on "sound science" and are not "arbitrary numbers," the buffers' supporters say.

Critics, however, say the buffers — five miles from wildlife refuges, two miles from state parks and one mile from game preserves — aren't based on science and are in fact akin to political gerrymandering, drawn only to stop landfills from being built.

File photo (ENLARGE)

A boat sails the Great Dismal Swamp Canal in this file photo.

File photo (ENLARGE)

Bulldozers work the grounds at the Bertie landfill July 26, 2006.

"The true purpose of the new buffer requirements was to target and stop four landfills that had submitted applications for permits or were on the verge of submitting permit applications in eastern North Carolina," said Phil Carter, of Waste Industries USA.

Waste Industries' proposed Black Bear Landfill in Camden County was scheduled to be built one mile from the Great Dismal Swamp. Consequently it's one of several landfills now blocked by the buffering requirements written into the Solid Waste Management Act of 2007. Lawmakers approved the measure during the recently completed legislative session.

Another proposed landfill project in the area, near the Alligator River in Hyde County, has also been blocked by the legislation.

One of the chief proponents of the buffering requirements was state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, president pro tempore of the state Senate. After the bill passed, a Basnight spokesman said one of the senator's priorities was "making sure (a) landfill did not come to Camden."

But that doesn't mean the legislation's buffering requirements weren't based on science, Schorr Johnson said last week.

"Five miles was not an arbitrary number," he said. "(Legislative) staff w(ere) working with state agencies to get that number."

While other agencies offered input, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service provided "the technical basis" for the five-mile buffering requirement from national wildlife refuges, Johnson said.

Pete Benjamin, ecological services supervisor for Fish & Wildlife, said that environmental impact studies currently required of landfill applicants aren't always sufficient for determining impacts. That's in part why his office recommended the 5-mile buffer from national wildlife refuges, he said.

"The science regarding potential off-site landfill impacts, precedent in other states, and professional judgment of contaminant specialists in our office support inclusion of an additional provision such as 'a buffer of at least 5 miles will be required between any designated National Wildlife Refuge and the nearest waste disposal unit of a sanitary landfill,'" Benjamin wrote in May to the House and Senate committees that drafted the legislation.

Benjamin said precedents for wider buffers have already been established in New Jersey, which has a 6-mile buffer between national parks and hazardous waste landfills, and Georgia, which has a 3.2-mile buffer between new landfills and national historic sites.

Though Georgia's buffer doesn't specifically include wildlife refuges, they "are typically given equal or higher priority (than historic sites) with respect to protection from environmental damage for planning purposes," Benjamin wrote.

Maintaining "the aesthetic quality" of refuges for public enjoyment is another reason for a 5-mile buffer, he said.

"This is really important in the relatively flat coastal plain where large landfill piles can alter the 'viewscape' over great distances," Benjamin wrote.

Another argument for the buffer was to protect migratory birds' watering and roosting areas from "scavenging bird populations at landfills," he said. Federal regulations currently protect large bird populations from landing fields through two-mile setbacks from airports, he added.

Finally, buffers are needed to protect water quality, Benjamin said.

"Ten refuges and their surrounding lands, including the six that are located near landfill sites, lie in the Coastal Plain and are often characterized by marginally suited conditions for landfill siting — high water table, presence of wetland soil types (and) proximity to flood prone areas," he wrote.

Benjamin cited a 2005 study that examined the impact of Dare County landfills on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. That study documented contamination of canals draining from an active landfill site, and that "runoff or leachate from the landfill was identified as having adversely impacted habitat quality in drainage canals, which ultimately run through the refuge."

Carter, however, isn't convinced.

"The answer is, no scientific basis was used whatsoever" in establishing the buffers, he said. "In short, the whole purpose (for the law) was politically motivated and headed up by the two most powerful elected officials in state government (Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney) to accomplish two things: To establish a tax on garbage that will only increase over time" and "to stop several landfills planned in eastern North Carolina that would accept out-of-state waste."

The proposed Black Bear Landfill was supposed to accept garbage from seven states, including North Carolina.

Waste Industries is still reviewing the new law's language, "trying to determine what our options are," said Ven Poole, a Waste Industries spokesman.

Meanwhile, representatives of environmental groups are welcoming the buffering requirements.

"It's a landmark bill that sets all these sitings of landfills, which should see North Carolina well through into this century," said Jim Stephenson of the N.C. Coastal Federation. "I think it's better than other states. One reason is, it's newer. I would hope we have set standards that other states will now follow."

Another buffer supporter, Christa Wagner of the N.C. Sierra Club, credited the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources for investigating solid waste laws in other states before adopting the more stringent rules.

"We think this bill is the most significant overhaul of the state's solid waste policies in two decades," Wagner said. "The department did a year-long study comparing other states' best practices and sound science before making the recommendations they did. By creating these buffers, we are protecting land held in public trust."

(Contact Bob Montgomery at

bmontgomery@coxnc.com)