Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton recently re-opened an issue that has sown division in our area for decades when he said that Orange County should drop its plan to start trucking the county's solid waste to Durham next year, and instead should build a waste transfer station.

That would, in all likelihood, require the county to keep the landfill open for at least a year or two beyond its planned closing in 2013, in order to allow time for the transfer station to be built.

Any plan that proposes to keep the landfill open even a day longer than necessary is likely to draw determined opposition from many residents and their supporters in the Rogers Road area. Those folks have borne the burden of living next to the landfill for nearly four decades. They have fought long and hard to persuade local leaders to relieve that burden, and they are, understandably, counting the days until the trash goes elsewhere.

But Chilton's idea deserves at least a good look - especially if, as he suggests, the northwest quadrant of the I-40-N.C. 86 interchange were a feasible transfer station site.

A transfer station in Orange County, near the interstate, would be far preferable to trucking our trash to Durham for many reasons. It could save a great deal of money, reduce carbon emissions and preserve local control. As Orange County's solid waste manager said, "If you took politics off the table, that is clearly the most efficient thing to do."

Politics are always on the table, of course. At least for now, Chilton's idea should be too.