Rogers Road citizens rally for their community
The Center for Civil Rights continues to advocate for the
Rogers Road Neighborhood, a 150-year-old, majority African American community
divided between Chapel Hill and Carrboro that has hosted Orange County’s landfills
for over 40 years.
In 1972, the county sited an unlined landfill near the
community upon a promise to residents that it would close the landfill within
10 years. In 1982, the county instead extended
the life of the landfill and has since expanded it to include two municipal
waste landfills, two construction and demolition debris landfills, a leachate pond, a hazardous
waste collection site, a materials recovery facility, facilities for mulching
yard and clean wood waste, and facilities for managing scrap tires, old
appliances, scrap metal, and salvaged construction materials.
The Center has partnered extensively with the Rogers Road Neighborhood Association
(RENA) for several years in its efforts to address the continuing
impacts of the landfill. It has represented RENA in filing Title VI discrimination
claims with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 2009, the Center worked
with RENA to successfully stop Orange County’s attempt to site a Waste Transfer
Station near Rogers Road.
Currently,
the Center closely monitors the work of Orange County, Chapel Hill, and
Carrboro as they discuss remediation of the effects of the landfill on the
community. Below is an opinion piece by Community Inclusion fellow Bethan Eynon printed in the Chapel Hill News on December 4, 2012.
The Historic Rogers Road Neighborhood Task Force was formed
to coordinate the efforts of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County in
fulfilling their affirmative obligation to remedy the burdensome effects of the
county landfill on the Rogers Road community. The Task Force was charged with
making recommendations on both the scope of and the means to finance necessary
reparations, including the community-identified priorities of public water and
sewer, and a community center. The Center for Civil Rights has worked closely
with the leadership and the members of the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood
Association (RENA). As the Assembly of
Governments prepares to meet on December 6 to review the Task Force’s final
recommendations, local representatives must consider several critical issues
regarding the provision of sewer to ensure that remedial efforts are meaningful
and effective for the community.
First, the local governments should clarify what “the
provision of sewer” actually means.
There are three stages in connecting a residence to public sewer: the
installation of the main infrastructure lines accessible to the residence, the
connection of the main line to the meter in front of the residence, and the
connection of the meter to the house. While the Task Force and the local governments have generally agreed to
provide some level of sewer service, whether homeowners will be required to pay
for the meter-to-house connection remains unresolved. Although the community has been encouraged by
discussions embracing this issue at the last Task Force meeting, cost estimates
discussed thus far specifically exclude meter-to-house connections, which can
cost thousands of dollars per residence and therefore inaccessible for many in
the community. “Providing” sewer
infrastructure that residents are unable to use is in fact not to provide it
all.
Further evidence of this problem exists. In October 2011,
Orange County established a $288,000 fund to subsidize main-to-meter water
connections for low-wealth residents in Rogers Road. To date, few if any residents have applied
for funds, because this assistance still burdens residents with the significant
costs of the meter-to-house connection. A similar fund established by the Town of Carrboro also contains
restrictions that limit its actual utility to residents and remains untouched.
The county also maintains a well repair program to assist
property owners within a certain radius of the landfill if it determines that
the well is failing. Ironically, the
fund cannot be used to connect these same homes to the public water
infrastructure, which according to OWASA, runs throughout the community
although several homes remain unconnected. These funds, reserved for remediation in Rogers Road but ineffectively
designed and largely unusable, should be reallocated so they actually meet the
needs of the community. Although installation of sewer infrastructure is months
away, funding is available today to provide meter-to-house connections to
residents who live close to already-installed water and sewer mains but who
remain unconnected.
Reverend Campbell speaking on behalf of RENA at an EPA Town Hall Meeting
There are two additional issues that the local governments
should take into account. First, any
remedial efforts must benefit the entire community. The Rogers Road
neighborhood is already divided between the extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ)
of Chapel Hill and the Town of Carrboro. This arbitrary jurisdictional division of an established community—which
the towns ordinarily try to avoid-- ignores the neighborhood’s rich history and
undermines its efforts to work together to address the needs of residents.
Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County should be vigilant that future actions
involving the community will not do the same. For example, the Task Force has
suggested that only some residents should be eligible for no-cost
meter-to-house connection to sewer, based on whether they lived in the
neighborhood when the original landfill was built in 1972. Providing sewer to only a portion of the
neighborhood fails to address the stated goal of improving the quality of life
of the entire community and the reality that all residents are burdened by the
adverse impacts of the landfill. Additionally, to imply that only some residents “deserve” mitigation
does not address the scope of liability our broader community has incurred and
dismisses the neighborhood’s extraordinary collective effort and unity in the
face of these ongoing challenges.
Finally, the local governments must begin to consider steps
to preserve the character and integrity of this historic community. The long overdue infrastructure improvements,
combined with the closing of the landfill, raise the specter of gentrification
and push-out of longtime residents and families. With direct input and guidance from the
community, forward-looking protections must be discussed and established now to
ensure that the quality and character of this diverse neighborhood are honored
and sustained.
Posted by Bethan R. Eynon on Mon. December 3, 2012 2:14 PM
Categories: Community Inclusion, Environmental Justice, Orange County, Race Discrimination, Segregation