Canadian company GFL Environmental is close to full disposal capacity at its construction and demolition debris landfill on Riverdale Drive in Jamestown.
Stormwater drains to two tributaries to Richland Creek/Deep River, then to Randleman Lake. GFL landfill sits next to Kersey Valley Landfill, which sits next to Jackson Lake Road Landfill. They all drain to Richland Creek and Deep River, and all three landfills are located about 8 miles upstream from Randleman Lake.
GFL has applied for a construction permit so it can start filling the other half of its landfill site. The massive 1,536-page permit application, submitted in October, is below:
The company’s current permits are in the name of “High Point C&D Landfill.” Contrary to how that sounds, the landfill is NOT owned by the City of High Point. It is privately owned.
Phases 1-3 (28.35 acres) are two years from maxing out their combined disposal capacity of 2,509,828 cubic yards. Phases 4-6, if approved, will have a maximum gross capacity of 2,750,781 cubic yards. The landfill receives construction and demolition debris from 14 North Carolina counties.
Groundwater tests, conducted at the site a year ago this week, indicated the presence of a long list of contaminants including high concentrations of vanadium, cobalt, 1,4-dioxane, benzene, iron, manganese, barium, vinyl chloride and more:
This links to the 2023 water quality report:
This is from the Site Description and Background in section 1 of the water quality report:
High Point C& D Landfill is located along Riverdale Road within the city limits of Jamestown in Guilford County, NC. The facility consists of approximately 154 acres, of which approximately 17. 2 acres is currently permitted as the Phase 1 and Phase 2 waste units.
There are three small unnamed streams that traverse the site and flow into an unnamed tributary of Richland Creek, which forms the southern property boundary as shown on Figure 1. The first unnamed tributary is a southwest trending stream that forms the north-western property boundary. The second tributary is a southwest trending drainage in the center of the property and lies just east of the Phase 2 waste unit. The third tributary is a southwest trending drainage in the eastern portion of the site. Three stormwater basins are located at the northwest, southwest, and southern portions of the facility.
Topographic surface elevations at the facility range from approximately 700 to 820 feet above mean sea level.
The western portion of the site mainly consisted of trees and heavy brush before Phase 1 of the C& D landfill was constructed. Now, most of that area consists of [Kersey Valley] landfill operations. The eastern portion of the site has historically been used for agricultural purposes. A reclamation facility is located at the northernmost part of the site. A large portion of the surrounding properties are agricultural, sparse residential, or owned by the City of High Point for operations associated with Kersey Valley Landfill. An unpermitted landfill was documented to exist approximately 2, 200 feet west of the High Point C& D Landfill ( Babb & Associates, 2020).
We noticed that key “surrounding properties” to the east were left out of the above description. These would include Deep River (.638 miles directly east of the C&D Landfill), Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant and the Seaboard Chemical dump (.74 miles to the southeast), the historic McCulloch gold mill (.32 miles to the northwest) and the enormous Martin Marietta Granite Quarry (.3 miles to the northeast).
Also noticed: The original 401/404 certificates were issued by NCDEQ and the Army Corps of Engineers in 2016, PRIOR to the 2020 updates and changes to the Randleman Water Supply Watershed Rules (the site is in the Deep River/Randleman Water Supply Watershed). As such, the 401 certificate:
- is in the name of “High Point Landfill LLC” and states that the C&D Landfill is “Northeast of the City of High Point in Guilford County” [but does not state that the landfill is two miles south of Jamestown’s center of town and six miles from the center of downtown High Point];
- Has an address that no longer exists (5822 Riverdale Drive instead of the current address of 5840 Riverdale Drive).
- Names NO nearby “receiving” RIVER, even though an unnamed tributary receives flow from several streams on the C&D (and Kersey Valley) property before traveling less than a mile to join Richland Creek and DEEP RIVER (water supply source) at the Eastside Wastewater Treatment Plant.
- The only waterbody named is “Cape Fear (03030003)” — as River and Sub Basin number.
- As mentioned above, the original 401 uses the old Randleman Rules that were in existence prior to the enactment of the 2020 Randleman Rules. The 2020 changes affect buffers, setbacks, density, sedimentation and erosion control, variances, mitigation, specify water quality standards for pollutants and contaminants, allow the use of better high-res maps for stream identification, and more.
Mr. John Nguyen, the Engineering Project Manager overseeing the progression of this permit application appears to be conducting a very impressive and thorough review.
HISTORY of the privately-owned “High Point C&D Landfill”
GFL C&D Landfill operates as “WI High Point C&D Landfill.” The “WI” stands for Waste Industries
Waste Industries is based in Raleigh. Current principals, according to the NC Secretary of State website, are Lonnie Poole, Jr., Ven Poole, Greg Yorston, and Steve Grissom.
Waste Industries is a subsidiary of GFL Industries, based in Canada, owned by Patrick Dovigi. GFL Industries’ U.S. headquarters is in Raleigh.
The original builder of the Construction and Demolition landfill at 5840 Riverdale Drive was a Greensboro company called MRR Southern, owned by D.H. Griffin Sr., David Griffin Jr., Norbert Hector and Juan Carroll. MRR Southern opened its first large-scale mixed construction and demolition debris processing
facility in south Raleigh in 2000.
In 2001, the HIGH POINT CITY COUNCIL granted a special use permit to MRR for a “Major Demolition Debris Landfill and Recycling Processing Center” on the west side of Riverdale Drive, beginning 800 feet south of Kivett and continuing south for another 1,570 feet, for a total of 162.5 acres. The Guilford County Tax parcels are 15-94-7043-94-1 and 15-94-7043-94-2, 15-94-7043-94-16 and 15-94-7041-940-9.
Original application was filed by “MRR of High Point LLC,” in June 2002 and approved in May 2003. MRR’s “High Point C&D Landfill” opened in 2004.
In May 2004, the MRR “franchise” added Guilford, Forsyth, Randolph and Davidson counties to its landfill users.
In 2005, MRR was acquired by a Houston, TX-based company, Waste Corporation of America (WCA). The High Point City Council approved the transfer of the MRR franchise to WCA in February 2005.
In May 2009, the High Point City Council approved an expansion of the MRR franchise to include debris from TEN more counties: Rockingham, Caswell, Alamance, Orange, Cabarrus, Rowan, Davie, Yadkin, Surry and Stokes.
In March 2012, “WCA of High Point, a North Carolina LLC” granted the site to “WI High Point Landfill” (with registered address 3301 Benson Drive, Suite 601, Raleigh NC). Michael A. Roy, signed on behalf of WCA as vice president.
In March 2015, a dissolution certificate was filed by “WCA of High Point LLC” with the N.C. Secretary of State.
GFL’s pending application for a Construction Permit to more than double the disposed debris capacity at the High Point C&D Landfill on Riverdale Drive in Jamestown is below: