Turning trash into eco-friendly treasure

Seven years after Camden County officials endorsed a controversial deal that would have made their rural community home to North Carolina's largest landfill, they're pursuing a completely different vision for property near the Chesapeake border.

Camden, one of the state's poorest counties, is in the early stages of developing plans for an eco-friendly corridor along U.S. 17, just south of the Virginia line. Earlier this year, the county won a $2 million grant to run water and sewer lines to the area to serve the new development.

The landfill - proposed by Black Bear Disposal, a subsidiary of Waste Industries - drew intense opposition from officials in Chesapeake as well as residents in Virginia and northeast North Carolina.

Critics argued that the project, which would have generated an estimated $1 million or more annually for Camden, would pose a serious threat to public health and the environment. Chesapeake officials pointed to the potential effects on the city's water supply and the Northwest River.

The proposal hit a wall in 2007 when state Sen. Marc Basnight shepherded a measure through the North Carolina General Assembly barring landfills near state and national parks. The Black Bear project would have been close to the Great Dismal Swamp.

Now, as The Pilot's Jeff Hampton recently reported, the area is drawing attention of a different sort. Two groups are hoping to build eco-parks tailored to serve businesses engaged in recycling, alternative energy and similar ventures.

One of the projects, proposed by a partnership that includes Norfolk's Gordon Dillon and Vincent J. Mastracco Jr., would be on 134 acres owned by Black Bear. The partnership estimates they can attract businesses to the park that will generate more than 500 jobs.

A mile south on U.S. 17, Camden officials also plan to build a 100-acre, environmentally friendly park. Green ECO Institute Inc., based in Elizabeth City, intends to lease 10 acres from the county and construct several buildings to serve as incubators for start-up companies.

Peter Thomson, one of the principals in the project, said it would be similar to eco-parks developed in the United States and Europe. The goal is for at least some companies to grow and relocate to roomier quarters in the region.

Sen. Basnight, who helped secure the utility-line grant from an economic development fund established with tobacco settlement dollars, has described the eco-friendly corridor as similar to the public-private partnership that created the Research Triangle in the Raleigh-Durham area decades ago.

That's an ambitious vision, and Camden is far from realizing it. But it's an encouraging shift in plans for land along the Virginia-North Carolina border - a shift that could prove beneficial to the environment and to the region's economy.