No coal ash on a dozen years of DSSWA agendas (but Brooks County Landfill)

In agendas for the governmental group which supposedly has oversight of the landfill in Lowndes County, Georgia, there is no mention at all of coal or coal ash. Thanks to Julia Shewchuck of SGRC, those agendas for the Deep South Solid Waste Authority (DSSWA) are on the LAKE website.

[April 18, 2007 Agenda] Back in 2006 the proposed Brooks County Landfill is on the the proposed April 19, 2006 agenda, and the June 21, 2006 agenda said there was a public hearing June 29, 2006. An update was on the October 18, 2016 agenda.

2007 starts with one meeting with no mention of the landfill, but the April 18, 2007 meeting has “5. Discussion of Onyx/Langdale Proposed Land Swap”. I don’t see any further mention of the Brooks County landfill after that, and apparently it never happened.

Curiously, these mentions of the Brooks County Landfill on the DSSWA agenda are all months after these VDT stories:

  • Kenna Walsh, 15 February 2006, Hundreds protest proposed landfill,

    QUITMAN—More than 300 fired-up citizens filled the Brooks County Courthouse Monday evening to protest a zoning amendment that would allow a cross-jurisdictional landfill four miles east of Quitman off U.S. 84.

    Those citizens who couldn’t fit into the second floor’s 240 maximum seating area chanted on the courthouse steps “No dump! No dump! No dump!”…

    “We shouldn’t sell the birthright of our children that is disguised as a garbage truck with a pot of money on it,” said Superior Court Judge Arthur McLane, who came to the meeting as a concerned citizen.

    Likening the fight against big industry to the Biblical story of David and Goliath, McLane said the county should keep the land healthy for future generations.

    Austin Peele, a lawyer representing the Nestle Company, said the landfill may affect the Deer Park bottled water operations if chemicals leak into the water.

    Peele said Nestle, which has $200 million invested in the Deer Park operation, has “grave concerns” over potential contamination.

    The Brooks County Commission tabled the item.

  • Kenna Walsh, February 21, 2006, Landfill proposition withdrawn from Brooks,

    QUITMAN — Brooks County residents are breathing a sigh of relief — and fresh air — today as a proposal that could have allowed a multi-jurisdictional landfill was withdrawn Monday evening during the Brooks County Commission’s second monthly meeting.

    In a letter from the landfill’s parent company, Onyx Waste Services, Inc., the request for commissioners to amend a current zoning ordinance to allow a multi-jurisdictional landfill was formally withdrawn. The amendment would have allowed other cities and states to dump garbage in Brooks County.

    The interested company, Onyx, wanted to place the landfill on a 700-plus acre site behind the Langboard Plant, about four miles east of the City of Quitman. Methane gas extracted from the landfill would have assisted in the plant’s productions.

    Commission Chairman Wayne Carroll said the item was withdrawn at the request of the company….

I wonder if people in Brooks County knew the DSSWA continued to discuss that Brooks County landfill site for a year.

More in a previous post about privatization of the landfill, which makes it very difficult to get information directly from its current owner, Advanced Disposal Services (ADS), leaving DSSWA as the most likely route to find out anything about PCBs, coal ash, and who knows what else in that landfill. People asking the Valdosta City Council or the Lowndes County Commission for more than four years now has produced no information.

Recent agendas are mostly about the DSSWA grant program to its own local governmental members, such as these items from April 19, 2017:

  1. Approval of Royalty Disbursement for the period July 2016 to December 2016
  2. Local Government Grant Program—Magic of Recycling Grant 2014 & 2015 Re-Authorization
  3. Local Government Grant Program — City of Valdosta Litter Control
  4. Local Government Grant Program — Lanier County Passenger Van Purchase

As near as I can tell DSSWA meets again 6PM October 18, 2017 at the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), 327 W. Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA 31601. I have asked to get that agenda when it is available.

-jsq

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