CHAPEL HILL - Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton took his case for a new solid waste transfer station to the county's elected leaders last week, pitching a site north of Chapel Hill as a cost-saving interim solution.

Although the Orange County commissioners intend to close the landfill on Eubanks Road next year, the current plan to then send waste to a Durham transfer station would cost Chapel Hill taxpayers an extra $600,000 a year and Carrboro taxpayers an additional $200,000 a year.

"It makes more sense to keep the landfill open long enough to find a better short-term solution and to build an Orange County transfer station," Chilton said. He has proposed a site in the northwest corner of the Interstate 40 and N.C. 86 interchange.

Taxpayers can't afford to send waste across the county border, he said. Once Carrboro and Chapel Hill start exporting its waste to Durham, it will be hard to stop.

"I don't think that's a responsible use of taxpayer dollars," he said. "I don't think we have room in our budget to come up with that kind of money."

The Carrboro Board of Alderman unanimously passed a resolution last week asking the county to explore the proposal's feasibility.

The Chapel Hill's Town Council has been largely supportive of exploring Chilton's idea and is also soliciting a consultant to study the town's garbage collection and disposal methods and find ways to save money. The town does not have a budget for the study yet, said Catherine Lazorko, the town's public information officer.

Landfill closing firm

County commissioners and Chapel Hill Town Council members at a meeting Thursday night supported looking into the site, but the majority of elected officials remained firmly committed to a 2013 landfill closure, regardless of where the county's trash goes after that.

No one at the table Thursday said they liked the current plan to export trash to Durham, despite it being the current default.

"I just don't understand why this decision was made, except to dump it in our laps to truck it to Durham, which I don't think is a great solution," said Chapel Hill Town Council member Gene Pease.

Council member Penny Rich said the landfill should close in 2013, but it should not inhibit a search for a post-landfill plan that's better than transferring trash.

"I do not like the idea of transfer stations period. I think we need to move into the future and find how to use our garbage to our advantage," she said. "To close Rogers Road and to send it somewhere else and create another Rogers Road, it just shows we didn't learn our lesson. It's just not the way to move forward."

Regardless of where the trash goes, elected leaders have an obligation to the Rogers Road residents who have endured the landfill for years, several said.

"We talk about our responsibility as it's related to the environment, as it's related to our finances ... I would also remind you that people who live in the Rogers Road community are taxpayers, too. It is our responsibility to be responsive to them as well," said County Commissioner Valerie Foushee. "I do not know why when we rally about this, we don't talk about how we're going to help."

Chapel Hill Council member Matt Czajkowski agreed.

"I, for one, do not see for all of us who claim we're intent on social justice (how we) can let this matter go on," he said. "It needs to close, we need to make a decision."

Sites thrown out

Several in-county transfer station sites, including one near Chilton's proposed site, were thrown out years ago when the county considered building a station, said County Commissioner Earl McKee.

"Why would we not expect full-throated opposition again?" he said. "I'm not willing to got though a process only to be beaten back again knowing that we're out of time."

Hillsborough leaders didn't say much Thursday. The town is the smallest trash contributor to the landfill. Mayor Tom Stevens said Hillsborough will go along with whatever solution Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the county agree on, as long as it's financially feasible.

Orange County has a Solid Waste Advisory board composed of representatives from the county and towns.

So far the committee hasn't found the right alternative to a transfer station, but with an expiration date on the landfill, it has even more incentive to find better solutions, Yuhasz said.

The group is exploring long-term, sustainable options, including new technology that would transform trash to energy, he said.

"This is the one that has the most promise for being able to meet the needs of Orange County in a time frame that is reasonable," he said.

The advisory board will present a report on long-term waste options to the local governing boards later this year.