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Short abstract:

Ethnographic and acoustic data reveal the experiences of residents living near one the most toxic landfills in the US, troubling state regulatory claims that the pollution and the noise are contained.

Long abstract:

Since 1973, the “Green for Life” (GFL) Environmental Holdings Facility has grown in the predominantly Black community of Snow Hill in Sampson County, North Carolina (USA). Today, the 1,315-acre landfill is the largest in the state and the second-highest emitter of methane in the nation. Around 300 trucks transport 4,320 pounds of waste from 73 counties to the landfill daily. The NC Department of Environmental Quality and Sampson County Board of Commissioners have reassured residents that liners, covers, and a leachate collection system contain the garbage, PFAS, and vinyl chloride emitted from the landfill. Yet residents still see, smell, feel, and hear environmental harm. The constant influx of garbage pollutes the soil, water, and air and generates an intrusive industrial soundscape that continually disturbs residents’ sleep and disrupts their quality of life. After years of struggle against the landfill’s development, new permits to diversify the operation threaten to dismantle residents’ dignity. Public hearings observed and listening sessions conducted in 2023 emphasized residents’ concerns about ongoing environmental injustices and prompted a student-led, community-engaged acoustic monitoring project. In this talk, we share the preliminary results of that project aimed at monitoring the location, frequency, and magnitude of garbage truck noises. Our results “trouble” GFL’s claims of containment and demonstrate the promise of sensory knowledge in a context where existing regulatory paradigms evade responsibility for residents’ mental, physical, socio-economic, and cultural well-being. By engaging with ethnographic and sensory data, permitting agencies can move beyond mitigating exposure towards empathetic and responsive environmental policy.