Permits for Camden landfill held up by firm's organization
By JEFFREY S. HAMPTON, The Virginian-Pilot
© June 2, 2005
Last updated: 9:38 PM
SOUTH MILLS — The company set up to run the controversial Camden landfill may be too new to get state permits.
The state won't issue permits until Waste Industries proves it will financially back its subsidiary, Black Bear Disposal LLC, which will run the landfill, said Jim Barber, supervisor of the Permitting Branch of the North Carolina Division of Waste Management's Solid Waste Section.
The problem lies with the limited liability company, or LLC, a relatively new form of business organization. Statutes from the 1980s cover conventional corporations, partnerships and individual ownership but not LLC organizations, he said.
Black Bear Disposal LLC is set up as a subsidiary of Waste Industries USA Inc . The permitting process will have to wait until the state establishes that the company has solid financial backing.
"There's no statutory link between the two," Barber said. "We're trying to get a confidence level not only with this facility but with other facilities we have."
However the state resolves the issue, it could become the standard for new limited liability companies trying to build landfills.
Of the state's 41 landfills, only five are private and fall under business laws. Four of the five have recently converted to limited liability companies and will probably be approved when their licenses come up for renewal, Barber said. Existing landfill companies have established assets and income.
Black Bear and other new landfill limited liability companies do not have operating capital or a revenue source, he said. The state plans to establish standards on landfill companies, he said.
Waste Industries has submitted documents to the state to assure its financial backing of Black Bear, said Ven Poole, vice president of corporate development for Waste Industries. Poole said he understands that the state has to be assured that the company has the financial ability to run the landfill.
"Black Bear is a wholly owned subsidiary of Waste Industries," Poole said.
Another Waste Industries landfill in Sampson County was formed as a corporation, according to the company's Web site.
The North Carolina attorney general is reviewing the documents submitted by Waste Industries, Barber said.
Limited liability companies have grown rapidly in North Carolina since LLC laws were formed in 1993, said Liz Proctor, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State. Some 137,000 limited liability companies have filed with the secretary of state. Last year, 26,993 LLCs formed in the state. So far this year, 13,656 have been formed, she said.
LLCs get tax breaks and provide protection from lawsuits that other business forms don't allow for, according to Web sites about the companies.
Waste Industries, which operates more than 40 facilities in eight states, proposes building a 490-acre landfill within a site of more than 1,000 acres near the Virginia state line.
If approved, the landfill would be able to receive up to 10,000 tons of trash per day from cities anywhere along the Eastern Seaboard. The landfill was scheduled to begin receiving trash by October. New York City may be a customer.
At the peak of its operations, Camden County could earn about $4 million annually from a percentage of the tipping fees.
A commercial district on the landfill site would cover 50 acres along U.S. 17, and 91 more acres would be set aside for light industry. Nearly 200 acres would become a wildlife conservation area.
Several residents living near the site have opposed the landfill. Some officials and residents in Hampton Roads are concerned over estimates that 200 trucks could haul trash daily from ports in Portsmouth or Chesapeake to the Camden site.
Reach Jeffrey Hampton at (252) 338-0159 or jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com.
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