Posted November 1, 2022
On Monday, October 31, Granville County Environmental Services Director Jason Falls welcomed a group of local government officials from Moldova to the Granville County Municipal Solid Waste Landfill to learn more about solid waste management practices in the United States in a program sponsored by the Congressional Office for International Leadership. Officials with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ) Division of Water Quality served as hosts for the Moldovan delegation and began their first day of educational activities with visits to the Granville County Landfill. Delegates also met with North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall and Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Elizabeth Biser before visiting the Granville County Landfill and the City of Oxford Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Jason Falls toured the delegation around the landfill site and was able to showcase the progress on the new cell construction that will more than double the capacity of the existing landfill. Project engineer Stephen Nichting, Solid Waste Management Consultant with Garret & Moore, Inc., was also on site to explain the process and methods used to construct environmentally sound solid waste disposal sites in North Carolina. The delegates, who all serve as elected or appointed local government officials in Moldova, were also able to learn how groundwater is protected from contamination using landfill lining and leachate tanks and compared rules and regulations in North Carolina to Moldova.
The delegates will continue their tour of North Carolina by visiting waste disposal and public utility sites in Brunswick, New Hanover, Sampson, and Wake counties and engaging with officials from the North Carolina League of Municipalities, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, and county/city officials from around the state.
Falls presented the delegates with copies of Lewis Bowling’s Looking Back: 275 Years of Granville County History and 275th Anniversary commemorative coins.
Delegates from Moldova included Alexandru Bujorean, Olga Luchian, Natalia Nasco, Vasile Ion Sidor, Marian Milikevich Bairac, and Sergiu Andronachi. They were joined by Olesea Fortuna (Delegation Facilitator) and Andrei Bulzan (Interpreter) as well as Michael E. Scott, Ellen Lorscheider, Jessica Montie, Tim Davis, and Chris Hollinger from NC DEQ.