Our mountains are under attack. The assailant this time is one more ominous than we have known, one which threatens to destroy the very trait many of us cherish about our hills and coves. All of us stand to lose an important aspect of why we live here in the first place to a problem we ourselves have created and brought upon the land. Our achievements in making our region a growing vacation and retirement destination, as well as a beautiful place to live and work, have brought with them some dangerous by-products known by many names — trash, garbage, junk, refuse, debris, litter. We have increased the pollution of our views and our vision.

It appears that everywhere people are wrestling with the question of what to do with the waste products we generate as individuals and as a society. One can’t read a paper or hear a news report, it seems, in which pollution and environmental degradation don’t play a role, and the mountain region is no exception.

In Swain County, houseboat owners and related businesses are worried about increased regulation and costs associated with an effort to eliminate sewage and wastewater dumping into Fontana Lake. The Smoky Mountain News (Nov. 7, page 6) reported that both supporters and opponents of the county’s proposed ordinance agree that there is a problem but found the rules to be burdensome and containing language difficulties. Neighboring Graham County has not yet addressed the issue, highlighting the fact that this topic affects many people from a wide area, and will require cooperation among county governments and a regional solution rather than a locally administered Band-aid fix.

The Sylva Herald (Nov. 8, page 1) told of Jackson County commissioners continuing to listen to citizens and trying to hash out details and impacts of the yet unapproved Solid Waste Ordinance. Thus far, the county has come up with its own solution to our garbage and waste problem. We send it elsewhere. It’s one of our export products or so it seems. Currently, household trash generated here in Jackson County is shipped and dumped in Macon County at a cost of nearly $ 2 million dollars. In return for Macon’s good will, when their dump is full we’ll let them ship theirs here, assuming we have a nice spot picked out where it won’t bother anyone. It seems that hauling trash over high mountain passes is a practice we can expect to pay for and participate in for years to come.

What ever happened to the idea of cleaning up your own mess? How much additional pollution are we generating by trucking junk miles to its final resting place? What other impacts are there besides the “wasted” diesel fuel, fouled air and steady flow of taxpayer dollars to outside contract companies that occur from running loaded garbage barges up and down steep grades day after day?

As a building contractor involved in the region’s new and existing housing markets, I generate my own share of by-products and materials to contribute to the waste stream. We strive during planning and construction of each job to use materials efficiently, reuse any useful parts when possible, and recycle the rest. We save even the smallest 2-by-4 scraps for starter fuel in my wood stove and spread our clean sawdust on flowerbeds and around trees as mulch. Invariably, a certain amount of unusable scrap plywood, shingles, rotten boards, empty containers, treated wood or other nasty stuff is generated that must go to the dump.

I took just such a load last week to the Jackson County Construction & Demolition Waste Transfer Station, my first trip to the new location since the closing of the Dillsboro dump site. I was surprised at what I learned. I unloaded my pickup beside a loader and a tractor-trailer half-full of another builder’s trash next to a large metal building being constructed. I asked the attendant about where my trash was going once it was loaded in the trailer.

“They take it down to Georgia somewhere” he replied.

“What about that building?” I asked.

“That’s where you’ll be dumping your trash, and it will be loaded on trucks ... it cost $350,000.”

“Then where will it go?” I questioned.

“To Georgia, I guess ” was the reply. Something struck me as wrong that a county the size of Jackson has to ship its trash elsewhere. When I tear down someone’s old shed or rotten roof in Sylva, does it really have to be hauled to Georgia? Is there no room in the mountains for the cast offs and left-behinds of county residents and visitors? I realize that there are lengthy and hugely expensive regulations and procedures involved with operating an approved landfill, but shouldn’t we as responsible citizens take care of the messes we make? Maybe it’s time we all took a hard look at the true and real costs of our single-use, throw-away habits and lifestyles. Things can be changed for the better.

We all need to examine ways of reducing the waste stream at its source, by generating less and recycling/reusing more both at the personal and county/regional level. It only makes sense to charge those who generate the trash to pay for proper disposal of it. My trash is not my neighbor’s problem, yet both of us share an obligation to take care of our own mess in the neighborhood in a manner acceptable to others. It will take effort and input by all of us to answer the question of how to come to grips with our ever growing problem of human-generated waste products in a reasonable, affordable and ecological manner. We cannot wait for an answer to pop out of the sky. Perhaps inaction now and a lack of planning, foresight and responsibility will prove to be the most dangerous “wasted “ products of our time.

(John Beckman is a building contractor and operations manager at Unahwi Ridge Community in Jackson County. He can be reached at www.unahwiridge.com)

 

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The Smoky Mountain News