Commissioners answer Polkton man's plea for public hearing on methane pipeline

Dec. 21—WADESBORO — Local environmental crusader Bobby Johnson once again appeared before county commissioners to discuss concerns he and fellow Polkton residents have regarding the newly unveiled design for a pipeline to carry methane gas from the landfill to a transfer station on Route 52.

"I would like to address two things," began Johnson. "One is the proposed gas plant to be built at the landfill. I am highly in favor of having a gas plant there, I am sure it will help reduce the odors. But there are two design flaws in the proposed design of that landfill. One, the first one, and the worst one, is that they have been permitted to move excess methane through a candlestick flare, nothing but a pipe, they have dozens of them already at the landfill. This one is a little different, it has a pilot light that burns 24 hours a day, seven days a week... it is never to go out," lamented Johnson.

According to Johnson, "To power the gas coming to that pilot...it will burn twelve to sixteen feet high. This gas will be coming directly from the landfill through a cooler that will cool the gas, and the moisture will condense out, but everything else stays in the gas, it only removes the moisture."

His concern and agitation evident, Johnson continued, "The gas coming out of that chiller goes directly to that pilot. So they are burning dirty gas, directly from the landfill, minus the moisture, and that will burn continuously," states Johnson, drawing to mind images of Dante's Inferno. "So that needs to be changed," he later added.

Johnson feels one solution the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality [NCDEQ] should consider is burning the gas in a confined combustion chamber.

"I encourage each of you to contact the NCDEQ and request a public hearing, so that we can discuss this," Johnson said in a final plea. "See if we can get the landfill to make one minor change in their design, and not release these chemicals and poisons into the air."

"I will just briefly comment," stated Chairman Jamie Caudle, taking a rare break from tradition. "We already have requested a public hearing for that permit and we are just waiting for confirmation of that."

Backing up the Chairman, Commissioner JD Bricken added, "We have notified division of Air Quaility that we would like to have a public hearing. We have written an email and also called them. We have not gotten a confirmation yet, but we do want our citizens to know that we have made that official request, in both writing and by phone, and are awaiting a response."

Reach Lauren Monica at (843) 910-1020 or lmonica@ansonrecord.com