About Us
Responsibilities
The Department of Environmental Management oversees the operations of the Landfill, Recycling Processing Center, various convenience center sites throughout the county, as well as community outreach programs.
Landfill
In 1989, Environmental Management was underway closing the old landfill and constructing the new Subtitle-D Landfill on Campbell Road in Woodleaf. This landfill was one of the first built in the state that met the new State requirements that allowed for the protection of the soil and groundwater around the area. At this time Rowan County, also, established the recycling program with the addition of staffed convenience centers. Rowan County was one of the first to implement recycling for its citizens in the state.
Enterprise Fund
The Rowan County Enterprise Fund is a self sustaining-program that operates entirely by revenues generated within the program. Unlike other counties across the state of North Carolina, Rowan County does not charge household solid waste/recycling program availability fees. The Rowan County Landfill Enterprise fund relies on the surplus revenue generated from landfill tipping fees to fund non-landfill waste diversion activities such as North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) landfill bans and recycling services.
In consideration of the fiscal impacts of our current economy, the source of revenue generated by the sales of recyclables remains unpredictable and only capable of supporting a small percentage of program costs. As recycling programs have become more successful through increased participation due in-part to the convenience of single stream recycling, the tonnage disposed of at landfills has decreased. This means that our revenue to fund our entire solid waste and recycling program has diminished.
The landfill tipping fee increase will allow us to continue to meet landfill permit environmental compliance, sustain our recycling/landfill banned and solid waste diversion programs.
Gas Collection and Control System
The Rowan County Landfill has installed a landfill gas collection and control system which allow us to:
- Eliminate nuisance landfill gas odors.
- Be constant with our compliance initiatives.
- Evaluate the potential for future landfill gas-to-energy projects.