(The Center Square) – An environmental oversight program in North Carolina created in 2007 hasn’t investigated nearly 8 in 10 landfills, a state audit says, and 80% of those sites are within 1,000 feet of homes, schools, daycares, churches or drinking water wells.
The performance audit analyzed the Department of Environmental Quality’s Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program. Identified were 688 landfill sites where municipal solid waste disposal occurred without regulatory oversight, including 534 never investigated by the department’s program.
In the Division of Waste Management, the program was created 19 years ago to identify, assess and remediate sites that accepted a wide range of waste prior to 1983. That’s the demarcation point for what are considered modern environmental regulations.
“The Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program is a complex issue that creates challenges from a regulatory, legal, funding, and administrative standpoint,” said first-term Republican state Auditor Dave Boliek. “But the bottom line is there are hundreds of potentially hazardous landfill sites across North Carolina, and despite tax dollars supporting a program meant to investigate these sites, 78% haven’t been examined. This audit lays out the facts, giving taxpayers a reliable update on a longstanding government issue.”
Boliek’s office said program management estimates an average cost to investigate, assess and remediate a site at $1.9 million. Applied to uninvestigated sites, the cost would be in the $1 billion neighborhood.
Over 19 years, 97 sites have been probed – or about two per year. The Division of Environmental Quality secured 370 acres of waste, sampled 1,642 water supply wells and provided alternate water to 30 homes.
