North Carolina has a problem buried beneath its remarkable growth: hundreds of old, unlined landfills that predate modern environmental safeguards.
A July 2026 performance audit by the North Carolina Office of the State Auditor examined 688 known pre-regulatory landfill sites statewide. Under North Carolina law, these are sites where municipal solid waste was disposed before Jan. 1, 1983, but not afterward. They predate modern landfill standards designed to prevent contamination.
As of June 30, 2025, 534 of those 688 sites (78%) had never been investigated under the state’s Pre-Regulatory Landfill Program and were not actively monitored. Approximately 84% of the known sites are within 1,000 feet of at least one residence, school, daycare, church, or potable-water well.
These aren’t confined to remote corners of North Carolina. State inventories have identified 34 in Wake County, 11 in Forsyth, eight in Mecklenburg, and seven in Durham. Guilford County, meanwhile, now reports five pre-regulatory landfill sites. In communities where yesterday’s outskirts have become today’s neighborhoods, what lies beneath the ground and where groundwater and runoff can carry it becomes increasingly relevant.
Those numbers should concern North Carolinians. But they should not frighten them. An uninvestigated landfill is not proof of contamination. It represents an unanswered question.
What could be beneath us?
Unlike modern engineered landfills, these old disposal sites were generally unlined and lacked the environmental controls required today. DEQ reports that historical waste at such sites could include not only municipal garbage but chemical-industry waste, asbestos-bearing materials, and other hazardous substances.
The problem is not merely what was buried. It is where contaminants can travel. Rainwater can move through buried waste and carry contaminants into groundwater. Groundwater can transport contaminants beyond property boundaries. Runoff and erosion can carry contaminated soil or sediment into waterways. Landfill gases, including methane, can migrate through soil.
That is why DEQ investigations can include groundwater and potable-well sampling, surface water and sediment testing, landfill-gas probes, methane assessment, and evaluation of vapor intrusion into structures. These concerns are not merely theoretical. Among sites North Carolina has investigated, the state auditor documented elevated methane, contaminated soil, and polluted groundwater. Since the program began, DEQ has sampled 1,642 water-supply wells associated with investigated sites and provided alternative water supplies to 30 homes. That does not establish danger at the hundreds of sites awaiting investigation. It establishes why investigation matters.
Yesterday’s dump can become today’s neighborhood
North Carolina is growing rapidly. A dump that once stood beyond town may now sit beside subdivisions, businesses, parks, or public infrastructure. That makes this more than an environmental issue. It is a property-rights, taxpayer, and responsible-development issue.
Families making the largest investment of their lives deserve reasonable access to information about known landfills near their property. Developers benefit from knowing environmental conditions before committing capital. Taxpayers benefit when problems are identified before development makes remediation more complicated and expensive.
Yet the state auditor concluded that current resources allow DEQ to address only about five or six sites annually. At that pace, completing remediation of the remaining inventory could take approximately 99 years. Program management estimated an average cost of approximately $1.9 million per site to investigate, assess, and remediate a landfill.
North Carolina cannot simply promise to excavate or remediate every old landfill, nor should it. Some sites may require substantial remediation. Others may require monitoring, land-use controls, or little additional action. We first need to know which is which.
Information, not Fear
The General Assembly and DEQ can take three practical steps.
First, lawmakers can require a risk-based timetable for addressing the backlog, prioritizing investigation of sites near homes, drinking-water wells, schools, and sensitive waterways. A century-long timeline should not simply be accepted as inevitable.
Second, DEQ can provide an easily understood public record for every known pre-regulatory landfill: Has it been investigated? When was it last sampled? What was tested? What was found? Does monitoring continue? Is remediation underway? Are land-use restrictions in place? If a site has not been investigated, say so plainly. “We don’t know yet” is valuable public information.
Third, North Carolina can establish an early-warning process before substantial development occurs on or immediately adjacent to a known pre-regulatory landfill. Before development proceeds, responsible authorities can know the waste boundary and determine whether investigation of groundwater, soil, and landfill-gas pathways is warranted.
This is not an argument against growth. It is an argument for informed growth. Nor is it environmental alarmism. Unknown risk is not proven danger, but it is not proof of safety either. North Carolina does not need to excavate 688 old landfills tomorrow. It needs to identify which ones require attention today. We cannot change what was buried before modern environmental protections existed. But after the state auditor’s warning, we can no longer say we didn’t know the problem was there.
