Guilford County Superior Court Judge Richard Stone has granted a preliminary injunction barring the City Council from entering into a contract with a waste disposal company that would operate the White Street landfill.
There is debate as to whether or not this is truly a victory for landfill opponents, since the ruling apparently does not keep the city from using already permitted space, which has a capacity of two to six years.
However, the N&R reports:
Phil Carter, an official from Waste Industries, said the company would consider contracting with the city for less than the planned 15-year term, but Waste Industries will have to research the costs to the company.
“That’s a pretty significant ruling,” Carter said. “It changes the whole way of looking at it in terms of the longer-term contract and the kind of money you are going to spend in the long term.”
That certainly seems to indicate that the contractor is looking at an expanded landfill, which is the gist of opponents’ argument.
Still, after reading the Rhino’s account of Stone’s extension of the temporary restraining order, it’s clear (at least in mind) that landfill opponents are suing to to stop something that might happen.
No one’s under the illusion that the city is eyeballing Phases III and IV of the White Street landfill. But the legal system is supposed to deal with the here and now, is it not?
