Mayor Gene McGee, along with the City of Ridgeland, is speaking out in opposition of a proposed landfill, which would be the third one located in Madison County.
According to McGee, there are 18 active solid waste landfills in the state. No other county has more than one landfill, except Madison County.
“The city of Ridgeland, and Madison too, most of our solid waste doesn’t even go to the landfill here in service now,” McGee said.
He said most of the solid waste going into both landfills is coming from outside of this area.
McGee said the landfill would pose many environmental problems for the area. However, he said the full effects of the landfill may not be known for another 50 to 100 years after its creation.
“Environmentally, there’s more opportunity for a runoff to streams and causing pollution,” he said.
After receiving notification about the proposed Madison County landfill, McGee wrote to the Army Corps of Engineers and Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) in opposition of the proposed North County Line Landfill.
The Corps of Engineers and MDEQ have both responded to the letter to confirm that it was received and to say that Ridgeland officials will be included in any public hearing about the issue.
McGee said his goal for the area is to cut down on solid waste through recycling and providing ways to reduce waste.
“My goal is to reduce waste going to any landfill,” he said. “We’ve become a throw away society, and by doing that, we aren’t protecting the future of our children and our grandchildren. We’re not protecting our environment.”
The City of Ridgeland received an email notification from the Waste Division of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality regarding the landfill, with the proposed site to be located on a large lot on North County Line Road in Madison County.
NCL Waste LLC has submitted applications for a proposed Department of the Army Permit and State Water Quality Certification for the proposed landfill to both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and MDEQ.
The public notice, which was issued on June 26, requested comments related to potential impacts to wetlands and other waters of the state located on the proposed landfill site.
McGee’s letter was submitted to mark Ridgeland’s “strong opposition” to permitting the creation of the new landfill. Madison County currently has two: Little Dixie, off of North County Line Road, and the sanitary landfill just south of Canton.
If the NCL permit is approved, then Madison County will have three solid waste landfills out of 19 in the entire state.
The Little Dixie landfill serves 30 central Mississippi counties. It also takes garbage from Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.
McGee said the proposed landfill would impact wetlands, open water and streams.
DEQ reports say that the Little Dixie landfill has approximately 12 years of remaining capacity, and the Canton landfill has 125 years of remaining capacity.
McGee said this shows that there is “simply no need for an additional landfill in the middle of one of the fastest growing residential areas in the state.”
The mayor outlined many areas of concern that the city has about the proposed landfill, including decreased safety and the negative impact on roads.
The proposed landfill would require use of large trucks, which would result in increases of truck traffic on Madison County Roads, including Highway 463, Coker, Lake Cavalier, North Livingston, Greens Crossing, Rouser Road, Old Agency and West County Line Road.
McGee says these are two-lane roads that were not constructed to carry heavy garbage truck traffic. According to McGee, this would negatively impact many other city roads as well.
There is also concern that surrounding property values would take a hit. McGee said property owners attempting to sell or develop property on North County Line Road have been unable to do so because of the Little Dixie landfill.
Economic development is another concern. McGee believes that the slow economic development in the area west of Highland Colony Parkway along West County Road could be due to the number of large garbage trucks on the two-lane road, leading to damage to the road and trash and debris scattered alongside it.
“Additional concerns include the resulting health issues and poor water quality,” McGee wrote in the letter. “Contaminated storm water runoff, as well as contamination of ground water and storm water drainage systems, is an inevitable result of the proposed landfill. However, the full effect of the landfill may not be fully known for 50 or even 100 years. There are numerous negative environmental impacts which will result from this landfill.”
McGee said that odor would also be an issue if a landfill was permitted in close proximity to the most highly-traveled and scenic national parks in the United States. He said that all visiting and traveling along the Natchez Trace Parkway and nearby property owners would be affected.
“You can drive down the Natchez Trace Parkway and down County Line Road, and you can smell the noxious odor,” he said. “When you drive down County Line Road you will see garbage everywhere. That’s not a good situation.”
“The presence of nuisance animals is of additional concern,” he said. “Landfills such as the one proposed serve as breeding ground for nuisance animals and the potential spread of disease.”
The proposed landfill would also require a variance from the Permit Board’s own regulations. The 2012 Environmental Quality Permit Board required any municipal landfill in this area to have a 500-foot buffer around all property lines.
The NCL Waste permit application for the proposed landfill requests 250-foot setbacks, half of what is required by the board. McGee asked that the 500-foot setback remain a requirement for the area.
