The Perry County Commission will hold a public hearing on its new solid waste plan at 7 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2004, at R.C. Hatch High School in Uniontown.

The commission approved a draft of the plan at their Nov. 18 meeting. The plan was prepared by the Wenworth Corporation of New Brockton, Alabama.

Perry County had previously been included in a Central Alabama Comprehensive 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan, prepared in 1990, that also included Bibb, Chilton, Hale, Marengo and the City of Selma. However, that plan was an incinerator never worked out.

The current plan envisions a private landfill project four miles southeast of Uniontown on County Road 1 that would service 17 states including Alabama.

The permit for the landfill will go to Perry County Associates, LLC. The company is reportedly based in Georgia and headed by Larry Matthews. It will be privately owned and operated.

According to the plan, the projected landfill will generate 7,500 tons per day or 1,950,000 tons per year.

County Road 1 at the intersection with County Road 21 will have to upgraded to accomodate heavy trucks, and the major cost for the county will be the maintenance of those roads.

The plan predicts there will be no public health impact because of the rural location. The landfill is expected to be in use until 2015.

The report from Wenworth does caution that groundwater, air and soil can be affected by the facility. Contaminant seepage and noxious fumes are a possibility, and monitoring wells must be installed.

An earlier public hearing had been held in April by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management concerning the request for a permit by Perry County Associates.

Opponents of the landfill have cited environmental concerns, lesser property values and the existence of a historic slave cemetery on the property.