A decade-long controversy over the placement of a landfill on North County Line Road could soon draw to a conclusion. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, which must grant NCL-Waste LLC a permit to move forward with plans for a 100-acre municipal solid-waste disposal site, will hold a public hearing Thursday, Dec. 15 at 7 p.m. at Tougaloo College’s Holmes Hall.
A previous meeting took place in June 2010. MDEQ wants NCL-Waste and the landowner, Mike Bilberry, to have a setback of 500 feet.
But even if MDEQ officials approve the plans for the new landfill, the operators may have difficulty filling it with trash if Hinds County has anything to say about it. At this morning’s meeting of the Hinds County Board of Supervisors, an opponent asked the board to act even though the landfill would not be located in Hinds County.
“This is not the appropriate location for another sanitary landfill,” said James Baker, director of planning and administrator for Hinds County. Baker noted that two other garbage facilities already exist in the area.
Currently, 18 landfills operate across the state. If approved, the facility would be the third solid-waste landfill in Madison County. BFI Waste Systems of Mississippi owns the Little Dixie Landfill, located immediately south of the proposed site; another is located in the city of Canton.
“This seems to be a Madison County issue but is using a Hinds County road,” District 4 Supervisor Phil Fisher said. Hinds County maintains County Line Road. Fisher added that if MDEQ grants the permit, and the project moves forward, “Madison should pay for (maintenance of) the road or find another route to get there.”
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.