Residents, consultant urge caution over proposed solar on closed Middlesex landfill as vinyl chloride remains above safety standard

Thomas Major, a Saluda resident, urged the Middlesex County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 9 to pause plans for a solar project on the county’s closed landfill until groundwater contamination has fully met state standards.

Major said vinyl chloride — a volatile organic compound identified in past monitoring — remains “five times higher than what are considered safe” in some wells and that the site must be below the groundwater-protection standard for three consecutive years before monitoring can stop. He called vinyl chloride “a Group A human carcinogen” and asked the board to halt the project until the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has released the site from monitoring requirements.

The board then heard an update from ARM Group (formerly Resource International), the county’s environmental contractor. Bob Hundley of ARM Group reviewed…