The N&R picks up on a story that’s been making the rounds for about a week now: the cancer rate among residents living near the White Street landfill is higher than usual.

It’s a confusing story, because Yes!Weekly —which first reported the story —- is citing a study by the NC Central Cancer Registry, while the N&R reports that the Guilford County Department of Public Health launched the research effort “at the urging” of Greensboro City Council member Trudy Wade. Both stories, however, quote N.C. Division of Public Health epidemiologist Doug Campbell saying he doubts the landfill is contributing to the higher cancer rates.

I’m not going to touch causality, or lack thereof. What I found interesting, however, was the fact that one of the companies who more than likely will be submitting a proposal to re-open White Street as a bio-conversion facility downplayed the study:

The findings contradict materials submitted by Bob Mays, a former city councilman who is proposing to reopen the White Street Landfill as a bio-conversion facility, to the council and filed as an exhibit with the minutes for the council’s Sept. 15, 2009 meeting.

Referencing Karen Knight, manager of the NC Central Cancer Registry, a documented entitled “White Street Landfill Health Concerns” that Mays submitted to the city council states, “Studies show there is no causal link to cancers or other critical illness to humans located nearer to a regulated, monitored landfill…. There have been no patterns of cancer or critical illness in these findings, and Ms. Knight explained the White Street study will reveal the same results.”

But even more interesting is another quote, presumably from lame-duck Mayor Yvonne Johnson. I say ‘presumably’ because the mayor is not referenced else by her full name in the article:

“This is really strange,” Johnson said last week. “I’m listening to Bob Mays’ proposal. I’m not signing on blindly. That’s the problem: We have these individuals coming into the community, and we really have no way of knowing what they’re going to do. They’re using us to lend their program credibility, and I take exception to that. I’m going to say something to Bob Mays. It’s almost as though we’re endorsing them; we’re not endorsing them.”

If that indeed is the mayor speaking, that’s a strange quote, considering the fact that one could infer by her actions that she strongly favored the proposal from Ulturnangen to turn garbage into gold. But —based on what I’ve read — the city really has no way of knowing exactly what Ulturnagen would do any more than they know what Bob Mays’ company would do.

At any rate, Mayor Johnson’s making way for Bill Knight in December, but —needless to say —- this issue will still have to be closely watched.