WINNABOW -- Officials in Brunswick County say one man's trash could be hurting the environment.
Attorneys for Brunswick County are in a battle with one property owner, trying to get him to clean the mess in his yard by the end of the month.
Phillip Rivers lives off a remote road in Winnabow. He's owned his seven acres of land for 20 years and says it's not until recently that the county started pressuring him to clean up the junk in his yard.
County attorneys say the oil drums, old soda machines and rusting equipment are leaking chemicals into the soil.
Since rivers lives near wetlands and nearby neighbors water wells, county officials are afraid the pollutants are a danger.
Rivers says he'll comply with the clean-up, but he can't do it in the time allotted.
Rivers said, "Now they gave me an ultimatum to clean it up in 30 days, but how can they tell a man to clean up in 30 days what he's been doing for 20 years?"
Environmental chemists have done initial tests of the soil on rivers property and in some places found more than 800 times the amount of oil and grease than experts say is safe.
After the 30 days is up a county clean-up crew will clear out the property, but at Rivers's expense.
Rivers says he's on a fixed income and expects the cost of clean up to exceed $30,000 -- a price he can't pay.
Ticked off person
As a matter of fact a off duty deputy did clean the yard. But not for good "PR". He did it out of the kindness of his heart. He even paid for the gas to drive out there and to the landfill and back that day. Instead of griping and moaning and groaning about this man's yard, how about we help someone out of the goodness of our heart. What do you say?
FINES for clutter on front porches
Iam a tennant in shamrock village.I have been informed by my landlord that the CITY OF WILMINGTON is fining home owners for cluttered porches. FIRST of all i feel they are overstepping their authority. I can understand a trashed out yard but NOT a cluttered porch whats next? they should concentrate on the pigstie in neiborhoods in the city that are MUCH worse!! also if they want a pristine neiborhood what about sidewalks on east kilarny rd. I work in the downtown area and see were the true problem is. LOOK FOR YOURSELF.
polluting the enviroment
one guy with junk on his property is polluting the ground water??
not a chance...
they are lying...
how about the real polluters..
big business...like the state allowing a garbage dump site to be erected in the green swamp on the brunswick and columbus border south of bolton off of 211...
where just a few short years ago the pulpwood company was fined a million dollars for digging a ditch in the "protected wetlands" and allowing sand to get into the wetlands ditches and creeks and they had to give wetlands to the state numbering in the thousands of acres...
now the state has okayed this dump to pollute the whole green swamp...
i wonder what officials in the state and county governments are now millionaires!
yeah i know they are making them put in protective liners...
anything man-made doesn't last forever...just ask the people in minneapolis if their bridge was forever...and
not only that but thousands of birds will descend on this garbage dump site...bird droppings alone will pollute the area and never mind the non stop 7 day a week dump trunks traveling to and from the site...air pollution in the green swamp!..
if people really knew what it's going to look like it would shock them...
in california i saw an exact same type dump as the one being put in the green swamp...
you can see it for miles because it rises out of the ground like a mountain...in a swamp?!
the real problem here are the elected officals that are going to invade a mans home with the intent of taking his land...
because they know he will not be able to pay the bill..
maybe they don't want the land so a developer can steal it maybe they want it so they can put in a real safe garbage dump site there instead...so these legalized theives can make their kids rich too!!...
lets see..in new hanover the deputies legally shoot unarmed teenagers through doors and in brunswick and columbus county they let big companies pollute and erect a garbage dump site in the wetlands in the disappearing green swamp...whats next?...
i guess it will depend on how much more money these politicians want to make...
if you own land watch out you maybe targeted next...maybe your grass won't be short enough or maybe there will be to many cars parked on your land..
remember land owners..the law that gives you a legal right to keep and bear arms..if you read your history you will know the reason given..was so you could defend yourselves against an oppressive government...
you don't have use those guns to rid yourselves of these out of control officials...
at least not yet...you can still vote these greedy elected morons out of office!!
starting in the next election!!..PLEASE
delete our posts?
WHY are you the moderators deleting the posts of those who feel that this man's property is wanted by higher-ups?
Come on now, you have people calling people idiots, losers and scum of the earth, but a mere mention of some higher-up wanting his land gets posted for a mere two hours? I thought yaw were moderating insults..... not thoughts. Should you not moderate insults by the people and not logical thoughts?
Why are you stopping those thoughts? It is a valid thought, and more over, it is heard of on other forums as well,,,,,, there are a FEW PEOPLE in higher-up places wanting all that land around his area and you know it. It is public knowledge from months ago.
Trash in Bruns.
okay I am with anyone that decides to go and
help him...... And I agree with the writer who
brought up the laws (real laws) broken everyday. Like ID theft a 2nd time and nothing done about it..... or one who would have over 5 DUI's and still driving without a licence. Not to mention the Insurance on the vehic.
Could go on forever.... WHY!!!!!!!!!! Set the
date and I will be there to help. But, in our world we dont help each other anymore it is all about what a person can get for self...
Well we all may meet another time/another place.
Trash
If this old man has lived and owned this land for 20 years, I think that everyone should leave him alone, He should be able to do what ever he wants to with his land. And to whoever made the comment about paying someone to remove the trash, not everyone has the money like you all you rich people to just pay and have it removed. And the thing about the stuff in his yard hurting the environment; do ever think about how you are hurting the environment when you throw your cigarettes out the window, or when you throw a drink bottle out onto the side of the road.
And to the people who are putting nasty and rude comments towards or about this man, you should be ashamed of yourself. I would never say or do anything to disrespect my elders, whether I know them or not.
Trash removal
In response to Guest 20. I don't pay to have it removed , everyone does. It is called the garbage pick up that comes by once a week. Yes and I get a bill. It is the normal thing citizens do. I also do put the proper foods back in to the earth, by composting it. I am not rich but I do work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day.
Dung Beetles
I'm a neigbor of Mr. Rivers and am well aware of how he makes his living. The "junk" is being recycled into our everyday lives. There is very little that has been there for twenty years. The "junk" has been carefully seperated and disposed of when the market is right. I hope some of our college grads realize how the stock market works. Are you a big investor or just wannabe. Everyone has a bit of trash in their lives and the dung beetle takes care of it. As far as the water goes it has not been the same since we were flooded with two hurricanes in a row. Might be easier to hang an innocent man than to realize mother nature did her thing.
Trash Man
Where did all the oil drums come from in the 1st place ? It costs money to bring stuff to the junk yard, so I guess he just did not want to pay to bring it there. Well if everyone did that we would be living in a pile of junk everyday. So do all you fine fellows want to come and haul off my trash after church too ? Sounds crazy doesn't it ? If we have to pay to have trash pick up every week and pay to drop off the big stuff at the junk yard then he can too. Take responsibility for your own actions Mr. Rivers. My neighbors have a whole bunch of junk behind their house for years and how they have gotten away with it I do not know. I will call someone though, for sure.
Greedy Developers
Who ever said on this post that someone is looking to buy that property is correct. I will just bet you that if this man does not get the help he will need to fix this problem, we will be seeing more $500,000 homes built there soon. So, why not beat the developers at their own game. Let's everyone bring this up at church on Sunday, tell everyone that you know and see if we as a community cannot set a date within the next few weeks to help this man. The fact that our DA is so worried about this is amusing, has he not noticed the drug problems, the sexual assualts, the drunk drivings, and behavior by law enforcement that is appaling what the heck is wrong with the DA's office and our local governemt in general that they would help to steal an old man land. Trust me folk, if they get his land, they are coming after your family land. Almost every man in this area has a pick-up truck, yard tools and might know someone at the county dump. We can stop this if we all pull together.
Interesting to know
An interesting fact to know is that Harper Peterson was asking about property in this area some months ago. As a developer in a consortium looking into land in this area he would have a vested interest in having this land cleared of waste, etc...
Harper actually drove by, turned around and jumped out to talk to me in my yard about some of the farm land that I and some family own.
What do you wanna bet that he and his group of developers have something to do with the driving force behind this action?
All this, and I like Harper as a person.
He Knew
He knew what his crap was doing to the enviroment. He has only been there 20 years and he's not living in a third world country. Information on this has been around for at least the last 30 years for goodness sake. Also, I bet he's been told before to clean it up and just didn't care. He was probably getting paid to take the crap off from someone else.
Oil in soil
There is no way this man can afford to have this cleaned up. Once the barrels and junk are removed there will still be oil in the surrounding soils, is he expected to dig all the soil out and dispose of that too? This is a problem every where, people dumping liquids in the woods, ditches and storm drains....not to mention the huge corporations. I do not condone anyone trashing up their own property but this is a country man he probably had no clue that the drums were going to mess anything up later.
I think that if nearby neighbors water wells are at stake that those neighbors should get up and help this guy clean up, I WOULD. Maybe make a project out of it, like some Boy Scout troop or better yet how bout some off duty policemen lend a hand (sheriff could use a little GOOD p.r.).
False reporting...
"Now they gave me an ultimatum to clean it up in 30 days, but how can they tell a man to clean up in 30 days what he's been doing for 20 years?"
Am I supposed to believe this guy has "ultimatum" is his vocabulary? I'm thinking the even the one syllable words are a stretch.
idiotzs
If in one minute you think the man can't go beyond one syllable your sadly mistaken. Maybe you need to look back and remind yourself where you came from. Today you may have money and position and tomorrow you may be homeless. ##it happens and you'll be picking up cans on the roadside. You may even have to buy a permit to pick up your own trash! Get off your holier than thou and accept the fact that Mr. Rivers might be your best friend.
Am I supposed to believe
Am I supposed to believe this guy has "ultimatum" is his vocabulary? I'm thinking the even the one syllable words are a stretch.
Care to try that again in English? Those who live in glass houses....
Ya think!?
From the following:
"thinking the even the one syllable "
That you really do not have the room to be a critic of someone else's writing/English skills.
If, by attacking someone this way was your idea of getting a point across, then you have. Point taken that you are overly critical of insignificant things about other people so it will make you feel better. You point out flaws in others to make your own less significant. Are you a teacher in our public education system? Bet so.
Idiots Running Brunswick County
I cant help but think the people that run that county are a bunch of idiots. The sheriff is being investigated for setting up safe havens for drug dealers and having deputies work on his re-election campaign while on duty, a Shallotte police officer is shooting at people at a marina in Shallotte Point ,teachers cant afford to live in the county they teach in and now their trying to have someone clean up a mess that they allowed to go on for 20 years and expect it to cleaned up in 30 days. What a joke!
huh?
clean that s--- up you old turd!
LOL his name is Phillip
LOL his name is Phillip Rivers. that guy couldn't throw a TD!
well if he has been doing it
well if he has been doing it for 20 years and nothing has been done,why wait until now and then give 30 days to clean it up.That is the way our great county works.Someone with alot of money must have their eye on his property or some close by to buy and they have line the pockets of some of the upper "big wigs" of the county.i also got another question? why is the county cleaning up other peoples junk and not charging them to do it and they are going to make a man on a fix income pay for his to be done,i think that is a crock of horse turds.well i look at it like this overall and if it is good for one to be done ,then it should be good for all.the county should also be looking at the junkyards in the county that has cars in it that has oil,gas,in them that spills out on the ground, and do something about them.
not the only one the county should look at!
If they are so worried about this remote location, why don't they take a drive down 133 from leland to southport and pay close attention to some of the houses and front yards along that road. it is a disgrace that one particular area along that road is allowed to continue to look the way it does. at least finally the property in one place is for sale but who would want it with all the junk and garbage not only on that property but all around the area.
why not look in area that are not so hidden??!!sounds like some neighbors have a bone to pick with this guy!
It's because his particular
It's because his particular mess is harmful to the environment.
Idiot
Clean up that mess you made immediately you idiot. The rest of you idiots (anyone who thinks this man and his pile of crap are OK), stop screwing up the country and clean up the mess you are making.
Clean and green
What about the waste that you create? You do pay someone else to continually haul it off for you.
What is you had twenty years worth of crap laying around and had to pay for it all at oncce? Hit ya like a tax bill in New Hanover county, ouch!
30 days? Limited income? Not likely. 30 days is just a boiler plater figure given by the county when they canot fiure out a reasonable timetable. He should be given a reasonable improvment schedule and someone from the county should be following it up closely.
What if you had 30 days to pay all your taxes? What if you had 30 days to fix the Wilmington sewer problem? 30 days to cleanup after a hurricane (Katrina scale)?
And the stuff being toxic to his neighbors? Isn't the nuclear plant down that way allowing greater levels of tritium than normal to be spread about the local community? Anything is toxic in great enough quantities. These same people don't care about dumps in the Greenswamp and landfills just north of them being toxic into the areas/waters around them.
Make a big stink about it because it looks bad, sure, we all wish things could be more beutiful around them. But my neighbor has a butt ugly kid, he cannot change in 30 days shy of an act of God.
What if...
What if pigs could fly and money grew on trees? If I had 20 yrs worth of crap lying around I would be an idiot and some normal person would complain and I might lose my property if I continued to fail to maintain it. If I had 30 days to file my taxes I would be an idiot because I knew for a year they were coming due. The Wilmington sewer situation has been coming for years and the State is stepping in because of years of failure and now the releases of human waste into the environment. You are planning on paying you NHC tax bill aren't you?
what if?
What if somebody like you put you bitter energy into helping this guy clean up? What if you just picked up trash on the side of the road instead of sat around and bitched about everyone else's peoblems.
What if you realized how sad a life you truly have...
Happy
No normal person would be happy about this and I am certainly not going to help losers with something they should already be doing. I clean my area each day after losers throw trash and bottles on it. It is a chore for normal people to deal with and clean up after you losers so try harder and do better you losers.
People are
People like you are so negative that you have to go around calling everyone else "losers" so it makes you feel a little bit better about yourself.
You're bitter, and your actions tell the story. You can deny this all you want, but it all out there for everyone else to read.
Losers
Wrong again. I did not call everyone a loser. I called this loser with the trash pile in Pender a loser and anyone who thought his actions were in some way defensible a loser wich means I called this loser in Pender a loser and now I am calling you a loser you loser. That is a total of two. This is a little thing I do called math. You should try learning the differnece between two and all. Because I am a pan-ultimate winner (and trash pile free), I feel pretty good about myself but it is true... losers are irritating to the rest of us good people. How big is your pile of trash or do you pay to have your waste removed?
You're Wrong
It's Brunswick County you dolt, not Pender as you say. Get your facts straight.
You are neither nice or correct.
I thought the purpose of the
I thought the purpose of the delay was to screen these posts before they were published.
So long as he doesn't cut
So long as he doesn't cut any live oak branches in the process, eh?
Heritage trees
That's true. Many parts of NC, NHC and Wilmington have ordinances, special protections and programs to protect these exceptional specimens from careless ignorant people who don't know any better. You will see these people in large pile of their own waste generaly and they are part of what is wrong with America. Certainly the rest of us should be notifying the authorities whenever and wherever we find these losers. To have a specimen protected in Wilmington the info is listed below and the PDF has a hot link from this site... Link
Tree Commission\Heritage tree Program info 07-12-06.doc
Wilmington Heritage Tree Program
About the Proposed Program
This program is to be administered under the auspices of the Wilmington Tree Commission. The program is dedicated to the identification and preservation of heritage trees within the City of Wilmington, NC. Heritage trees are those, which because of their size, age, rarity, overall beauty or historical significance represent an important aspect of the City’s history or natural landscape.
Specific objectives of the Program are:
(1) To identify and catalogue “Heritage” trees within the City of Wilmington.
(2) To reduce or eliminate the indiscriminate removal of or damage to designated trees.
(3) To increase public awareness and appreciation of the value of Heritage and other trees that add to the beauty and ecology of the City’s natural and urban landscape.
Heritage Tree Committee
Members of the Heritage Tree Committee include the City’s urban forester and members of the City’s Tree Commission. The Committee is responsible for setting specific criteria for designation, receiving nominations, maintaining the program’s database of accepted trees, and providing appropriate recognition to heritage tree owners. The Committee reports its activities to the City’s Tree Commission on a regular basis.
Heritage Tree Categories:
he knew better
Oh well, he knew all along that dumping all that garbage was not exactly safe or good for the environment. Atleast any reasonable person would have. Maybe once it is clean he should sell off some of that land to pay the bill.
Old oil
He made his own environment, he should just have to live in it. But not to the point that it harms with anyone else.
I bet those same people testing that soil would have a absolute heart attack if they saw oil and benzene levels in sites along the Cape Fear River like the old Exxon site (still in use), Invista (still there), and more current places like Vopak site and the state ports facility.
Sites
Some of these older sites sit on top of yet older places of importance along the Cape Fear River. One that sticks out in my mind is the Exxon facility that is still in use along River Road (New Hanover county side, near the state port).
This site has the "U" shaped gun enbankments atop a bluff on the North side of the property on the East side of the river. Over the years they have been torn down somewhat but they are still there. As well as artifacts. A metal detector and a boat make this place a great place to score!
Hopefully the man has some
Hopefully the man has some good neighbors who will lend him a hand. Thirty days does seem a bit unreasonable for one person on a fixed income to manage.
wish my neighbors would
I wish NHC would make my redneck neighbors clean up their junk. At least they keep most of it in the back.
They will
Call NHCSD. If they are unresponsive... call the EPA. They will be up on that property with impunity. EPA will not tolerate old cars, appliances, motors, batteries or tires that are not disposed of correctly and with good reason.
EPA?
good gosh, they need to be called on about 1/2 of Leland then.