CHAPEL HILL -- In February a backlash against building a county garbage transfer station on Eubanks Road spurred an elaborate search for a new site.

Now the consultant performing the search has recommended seven potential sites -- including one on Eubanks Road, which it ranks as fourth-best when only technical criteria are considered.

Commissioners Chairman Barry Jacobs stressed Wednesday, though, that social factors the board will apply later could automatically lop some of the sites, including that on Eubanks, from the list.

The current county landfill, which is expected to close in 2011, is on Eubanks, and residents of the area -- many of whom are black and live in modest homes -- persuaded the commissioners last winter to reconsider a plan to put the transfer station that will replace it there. They said they had put up with the landfill long enough and it was time for someone -- and some place -- else to share Orange's garbage burden.

The consultant's recommended sites will be the subject of a commissioners' work session Tuesday evening. The rankings were based solely on technical factors such as site size and didn't take into account matters such as nearby parks and schools or the neighbors' historical burden of dealing with the landfill.

Among other social factors Jacobs said will come into play are impact on air quality, number of residents affected and impacts on existing businesses.

Topping the list under the technical rankings are two adjacent sites at the intersection of Interstate 40 and Old N.C. 86 south of Hillsborough. Rated third-best was one of a cluster of three sites west of Carrboro on N.C. 54.

The commissioners could change the planned process during Tuesday's meeting by doing something like dropping some of the recommended sites or adding sites from among four others that didn't rank high enough to make the consultant's recommended list, said Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey.

The plan though, is for the commissioners to get a review of the selection process, then consider a recommendation by County Manager Laura Blackmon to have the consultant hold public meetings near each of the seven sites. The commissioners would use comments from those meetings during another work session in October, when they are expected to apply the social factors to the potential locations.

They also will open the floor Tuesday for public comment, something they decided to do as part of every meeting on the topic, Harvey said

A transfer station is a place where garbage trucks dump their cargo, which is loaded onto larger trucks for shipping to landfills elsewhere.

Jacobs declined to say flatly that he would vote against the Eubanks site. The process is supposed to be rational and deliberate rather than ad hoc, he said. Once there are proper rankings that include the social factors, then the commissioners will be able to make reasonable, defendable decisions, he said.

Among the big things the commissioners are considering is willingness of the property owner to sell, Jacobs said.

The board is expected to pick the final site in November so that there is enough time to build a station before the landfill shuts down, Jacobs said.

The commissioners' work session on the transfer station site begins at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Southern Human Services Center at 2501 Homestead Road in Chapel Hill.