The county school board was notified of the state’s visit, and told they will not be held responsible for clean-up costs should they be deemed necessary.
“No immediate hazard was observed associated with the landfill area,” a letter from NCDENR to the school system reads. “The property will remain as part of the state’s inventory of pre-regulatory landfills and continue to be part of public record.”
During the school board meeting, Richmond County Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Robert Beck explained the majority of the landfill area lies on adjoining property, but the state determined a small piece of it may extend into school system property. The parcel in question lies behind the school’s baseball and football field areas.
“We did conduct an initial site visit, but no threat level has been assigned to it at this point,” NCDENR Waste Management Division Environmental Engineer Pat Backus explained Wednesday. “There may be further testing done, but it would be done using non-invasive geophysical survey techniques (the ground will not be disturbed).”
Backus said the state learned of the old Ellerbe dump while conducting interviews for a study on a newer Ellerbe dump.
From that study, the Ellerbe dump was assigned a risk assessment score of 10, which does little to warrant state clean-up considering there are dozens of sites in the state that have scores in the 300’s to 400’s.
Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.
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