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In 2018, Cumberland County’s then Board of Supervisors agreed to host — some say illegally (litigation is still pending) — the 1,200-acre Green Ridge mega-landfill project in the Cartersville area. A lot has happened in the last seven years. Green Ridge has failed to earn the state permits that help protect our environment, wildlife, drinking water, and air.

Our nation’s top environmental law experts at the University of Virginia have raised serious concerns about the project’s impact and safety. Pediatric and public health researchers at Virginia’s no. 1 children’s hospital have warned against the landfill’s potential long-term, negative health consequences for our children. The National Trust for Historic Preservation declared the neighboring, former Pine Grove School one of “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.” Both Republican and Democratic state leaders have spoken out against the project. And just this past April, the Cumberland Planning Commission formally recommended that the Board of Supervisors deny Green Ridge’s application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP).

On Tuesday, June 10, 2025, at 7 p.m., at the Cumberland High/Middle School Cafetorium, Cumberland residents will have the chance to speak up during a Board of Supervisors public hearing. I urge Board Chair Eurika Tyree, Vice-Chair John Newman, Mr. Bryan Hamlet, Mr. Paul Stimpson, and Mr. Robert Saunders to deny Green Ridge’s CUP application and finally end this seven-year threat. Polluted air, contaminated water, diminished road safety, and increased Route 60 congestion due to trucks dumping thousands of tons of waste every day, around the clock, is not the future Cumberland residents want or deserve.

Rather than accept Green Ridge’s vision of Cumberland as a wasteland, I encourage county leaders to vote for a different, better future — one that diversifies and expands our local economy and tax base in ways we can be proud of. Let’s attract and keep young families because we’ve committed to affordable housing, sustainable development, and “smart growth” in the areas of Cumberland closest to Richmond and Farmville.

Let’s truly tap into Virginia’s $30 billion-a-year tourism economy and the growing public demand for rural eco-tourism by enhancing and leveraging our unique cultural and natural assets, like our James and Appomattox river access. Let’s creatively work to attract the state and federal resources needed to restore the former Luther P. Jackson-Cumberland Training School campus into a learning, civic, business, arts and cultural destination and community hub.

Cumberland is worth more than three playgrounds, a set of new marching band uniforms, a few small school donations, or anything else Green Ridge has to offer. As a local elder recently quipped, “Young families will be marching right out of Cumberland when that landfill poisons the well.”

So please don’t poison the well.

Inviting in toxic, destructive industries now only limits our future options for economic growth. It’s poisoning the well before we’ve barely begun to drink.

Justin G. Reid is a cultural organizer, social impact funder, Cumberland native, and lifelong member of the Sharon Baptist Church. He currently serves on the state board of the Virginia Tourism Corporation (“Virginia is for Lovers”) and can be reached at JustinGReid.com/contact.