BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 419-6632

CHAPEL HILL -- Just in case members of the Board of Orange County Commissioners didn't already know it, a group of 40 to 50 people had a very visible way of putting them in the loop.

They hoisted signs of defiance during the board's meeting Tuesday night saying, "No Waste Transfer Station on Millhouse Road."

Although discussion of the siting of a waste transfer station was not on the night's agenda, about nine people spoke against the possibility of siting the transfer station on Millhouse Road near the Chapel Hill Public Works Facility.

Four options are currently being considered by the Board of Commissioners, which is scheduled to discuss the options and possibly make a decision at a meeting on Dec. 7.

The sites include one on N.C. 54 west of Carrboro behind Piedmont Feed and Garden Center, about six miles west of Carrboro. People living in that area object to that site, saying it will destroy the rural character of the area and it is too far away from the towns that generate all the waste.

A second option would be for Orange County to haul its waste to the City of Durham's Waste Transfer Station. That would preclude having a site in Orange County, but some people object to that idea because they believe a county should deal with its own waste rather than making it someone else's problem.

A third option is to site the waste transfer station on property owned by the Town of Chapel Hill near its public works facility on Millhouse Road.

The fourth option is to build the station on land that the county already owns along Millhouse Road known as the Paydarfar property.

Michelle Laws, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro chapter of the NAACP, told the commissioners that the stench in the air was not from the landfill. It's the stench of racism and classism, she said.

People living in the Rogers, Eubanks and Millhouse roads area have given up the quality of their lives for decades so that people who made more money would have a place to dump their waste, she said.

"Enough is enough!" she said.

Later in the meeting, after many of the people who had been holding up signs had left, the commissioners approved a request form the Rogers Road and Eubanks Road neighborhood associations for a community water and septic system survey.

The survey will check the wells of 36 residences and examine the septic tanks of 36 residences.

Engineers Without Borders, a UNC student volunteer group whose mission is to help people obtain access to adequate sanitation and safe drinking water, likely will provide labor and materials for repairs if they are required, said Rosemary Summers, director of the Orange County Department of Health.

In a separate agenda item, the board voted to have the staff prepare a plan or policy for no-fault guidelines for replacing wells near the landfill on Eubanks Road.