Greensboro hosts tours of White Street Landfill to ease residents' concerns

Greensboro is hosting public tours of a local landfill that may be used to dispose of contaminated dirt from Bingham Park.

The park was built on top of a household waste incinerator and its soil contains arsenic, lead and iron. The city is choosing between three proposed sites to dispose of the soil. The White Street Landfill is the closest to the park. The other two are located in Asheboro and Troy.

Disposal costs could range from $24 million to nearly $54 million depending on the location chosen.

But White Street has a contentious history. Residents successfully lobbied to get it closed to household waste in 2005 and it now only accepts construction debris and yard waste. Environmental Compliance and Support Manager Richard Lovett says using the landfill to dispose of the contaminated soil could speed up its closure, potentially easing community concerns.

"The remaining life expectancy at this landfill if nothing happens is 2057. If Bingham Park's waste is brought here, it cuts that by about eight and a half years," Lovett says.

It's estimated that the contaminated soil from Bingham Park would fill more than 11,500 dump trucks.

Resident Michael Murphy grew up near the park in the 60s. He says a remaining concern is the removal effort clogging the streets.

"It's going to be a high-traffic area in the Bingham Park with those trucks," he says.

The city is expected to officially select a landfill in the coming months.