An investor recently had me looking over a gorgeous 84 acre piece property on the French Broad River with views of both the river and mountains in the background. The whole thing has already received permission for a 65 unit subdivision with sellers ready and eager to make a deal. One BIG problem though, the property is across the road from the county landfill. ( Don't even ask why the county chose to site this within spitting distance of the river!) So now I have to find out just how bad is this going to be. My first impression of the landfill is pretty good because the entrance looks like a park. But of course I have to dig a little deeper than this (pun intended).
So I call the Western North Carolina Regional Air Quality Agency andtalk with a wonderful lady named Ashley who is more than happy to tell me everything I ever wanted to know about the local dump, er, I mean landfill. I discover that the largest amount of pollution coming off the site is particulate matter caused by big machines pushing dirt around. No surprise here. Next biggest source of pollution is the VOC's, volatileorganic compounds. The site releases 3 tons of these a year. So I am thinking that this sounds like a lot of VOC's until Ashley tells me that our local power plant release over a million tons a year. Then I start doing a bit more research and discover that indoor air often has 2- 5 times more VOC's that outdoor air so this situation might not be as bad as I thought, although no pollution with clean air is obviously the best scenario.
Of course, my biggest concern aside from hazardous pollution is the SMELL. I inquire if there have been many complaints about this from neighbors. The answer is, not too many only 2-3 in the summertime. I am starting to feel better about this until I realize there are not a whole lot folks living close to the landfill at this time so 2-3 complaints might be skyrocket when more folks come, like about 150 in this subdivision.
But there is more positive info about the landfill. They have drilled holes down into the landfill and are capturing methane gas and burning off before it becomes in their terminology, a fugitive gas emission. Ashley tells me that this is something the site does not have to do until 2009 but they are voluntarily doing it now. End result, potentially less SMELL. A good thing.
But wait, the landfill has also won some awards for their Bioreactor Program. They basically capture water running through the landfill and recycle it back through again speeding up the decay of the organic debris. This also means the water does not leave the site and travel the very short distance to the French Broad River.
So now I am thinking this does not sound too bad. If I get a wind analysis study done of the prevailing winds around this site, this might just be a doable thing. We know folks that can help site homes that where these types of issues are mitigated to a large extent.
I am now ready to talk to my investor about this property when BAM, another deal with this investor that was supposedly dead has sprung back to life and this one is put on the back burner with a seller who is ready to deal.
So, if you are willing to take a chance on buying next to a progressive, somewhat green landfill with a 65 planned unit development already approved with million dollar views of the French Broad and mountains behind her, give me a call!
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