By Maggie Beamguard
Insider Editor
Residents of Seven Lakes North and South are currently without a convenient place to dispose of their yard debris. The SLLA Board announced the closure of the debris site until further notice in a community-wide communication on April 25.
The communication explained that the closure had been mandated by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ).
The details provided by the board indicate that this action followed an anonymous call to the Environmental Protection Agency expressing concerns that Evergreen Property Management had been involved in illegal dumping, specifically manure and wood chips as well as asphalt from three recent road repair projects.
The message to the community explained what followed. “What NCDEQ personnel found during an inspection on Monday, April 22, was neither Evergreen nor the SLLA being in violation of illegally dumping these items.
“The asphalt was removed last week. And while the wood chips and manure are okay to have onsite, the location of the piles was not ideal given pile proximity to ‘presumed’ wetlands behind the site. These piles will be moved next week.
Board officials believed the anonymous call was an effort to get Evergreen in trouble with state authorities. A separate complaint to Moore County officials issued on the same day raised concerns about the use of herbicides, pesticides and insecticides around SLLA property.
While neither Evergreen nor the SLLA were found to have committed any wrongdoing, the immediate closure of the yard debris site was ordered.
As the board explained in its statement, “This is because the yard debris pile itself is hazardous due to its location over a storm water drainage area that, via a culvert, leads to a ‘presumed’ wetlands site. This presents a risk of toxic/detritus flow downstream.
“There are also constraints regarding how close a yard debris pile can be to a property line, how large the pile can be, how the pile is managed while accumulating and how yard debris is ultimately disposed of.”
In a May 20 update, the association said it was working with county and state officials on a reopening, which could come in mid-June. So far, the association has cleared the site of yard debris and gotten a letter of approve by the county to operate as an amenity yard debris site.
“We have several more hurdles to navigate with both the County and the State,” the update said.
With the debris site closed for the foreseeable future, residents are carting disposal materials to the Moore County landfill at 456 Turning Leaf Way in Aberdeen off N.C. 5.
The board is working on solutions to get the debris site operational.
“We continue to work with NCDEQ and Moore County to try to find a resolution that would reopen the yard debris site to the satisfaction of all parties,” said board president Heather Guild.
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
