University officials have played what may be their trump card in the battle over a proposed landfill expansion into Duke Forest.
The University granted an easement Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Energy for a 93-acre section of the Duke Forest. The tract is part of a 500-acre site that county officials have targeted for the expansion of the Orange County Landfill.
The easement, which grants federal officials full access to a section of the Forest's Blackwood Division that is currently used for DOE-funded research, may throw a monkey wrench into plans to get the site approved for the landfill by the end of the year.
Members of the landfill search committee selected the site, which contains nearly 350 acres of the Duke Forest, as their top location in June.
University attorneys say that with the easement, Orange County officials can no longer lay claim to the land without the consent of the federal government. Federal officials will not relinquish the land to local officials because it would jeopardize much of the current research, said David Roberson, director of University relations. The easement lasts for a period of 10 years and is renewable.
Although the easement land is only one-fifth of the total site area, its location would make it extremely difficult for county officials to place the landfill in the site, Roberson said.
County officials who are working on the site selection process received news of the easement Tuesday, but said they were not yet sure how to react. Don Willhoit, an Orange County commissioner who is coordinating the site search efforts, said he planned to proceed with plans to obtain the site.
But Roberson said these efforts will probably continue to be met with opposition by the University. Since the Board of Trustees drafted a resolution in April authorizing "all appropriate and necessary measures, including the implementation of legal proceedings if necessary," to prevent the landfill expansion, University officials have not backed down.
"The Board of Trustees is responsible for preserving the University's ability to provide appropriate opportunities for research by students and faculty," said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs.
Although county officials have offered to negotiate plans that would preserve certain portions of the forest, such as the one currently used for the DOE project, Burness said these plans were not really feasible, and that the University is committed to preserving the entire Blackwood Division for research.
If county officials cannot obtain the University's portion of the landfill site, then the landfill group may have to scramble to find the necessary acres.
In the course of their efforts to block the selection of the landfill site, University officials have emphasized the presence of wetland areas within the site. Officials also attempted to have a portion of the tract declared a historic site, but the request was denied.
"When we brought up the wetlands and the historic site, they said, We'll work around it,'" Roberson said. "At some point they'll have to say,This is not a suitable site.'"
Researchers are currently using the site to study the effects of elevated carbon dioxide levels. The Department of Energy has contributed about $3 million of the $4.5 million in funding used for the study.
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