Landfill hearing set Monday

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 2, 2004

A public hearing on the proposed landfill in Uniontown will be held Monday at 7 p.m. at R.C. Hatch High School.

The Perry County Commission approved a draft of a new county solid waste plan at their Nov. 18 meeting. The plan was prepared by the Wenworth Corporation of New Brockton, Alabama.

The Monday meeting will involve the entire solid waste plan, however, the landfill is the component of the plan that has drawn controversy.

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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 plan predicts there will be no public health impact because of the rural location.

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.

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

The landfill is expected to be in use until 2015.

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 accommodate heavy trucks, and the major cost for the county will be the maintenance of those roads.

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.

The Perry County Commission has set a special "called meeting" for Tuesday at 9 a.m. in hopes of promptly approving the solid waste plan after Monday night’s public hearing.