---

Contact: Chrystal Bartlett 919-508-8400 ext. 425 Date: March 23, 2001 Distribution: Targeted

PERMIT ISSUED FOR HOLLY SPRINGS LANDFILL

RALEIGH – The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources' Division of Waste Management today issued a permit to Wake County to allow the county to construct a municipal solid waste landfill in the town of Holly Springs.

Residents living near the proposed south Wake landfill site challenged the permit, which was initially issued in February 1999. After an administrative law judge recommended the withdrawal of the permit on procedural grounds in a summary judgment, DENR withdrew the permit in April 2000.

On March 2, 2001, attorneys representing Wake County, DENR, Holly Springs and the individual petitioners appeared before Judge Donald Stevens in Wake County Superior Court. Stephens reviewed the summary judgment order and, on March 19, reversed the summary judgment and ordered the permit re-issued to Wake County.

Municipal solid waste landfills accept for disposal non-hazardous residential, commercial, institutional and industrial solid waste. Wake County's only municipal solid waste landfill, North Wake, located off Durant Road in north Raleigh, is expected to close in 2003.