By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | The machinations of government today are more complicated than ever. Sometimes big business and utilities seem to have the upper hand, understanding regulations so well that their action only benefits them with little regard to local communities.
Not only that, but these firms don’t deal in everyday issues like you and I do. They tend to think for the long run, meaning that no matter how big or how trivial, they usually get their own way, even if it takes years.
That’s what’s happening down in my old stomping grounds, in Wayne County, these days. A garbage hauling service, Republic Services, is apparently entrenched in using Wayne County land to unload tons of trash from states along the Eastern seaboard, much to the surprise and consternation of local residents. Now the possibility exists that Republic may use this dumping grounds to bring coal ash to Wayne County from afar.
Some two months ago, the local newspaper, The Press Sentinel, discovered a permit application affecting the already-established Broadhurst Environmental Landfill. The location is 10 miles from the county seat, Jesup, in the Broadhurst community. It’s a broad, flat expanse of land between U.S. Highway 301 South of Jesup and the community of Screven. Republic had bought more than 2,000 acres there.
The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a ruling allowing dumping of coal ash in Wayne County. Republic now seeks a permit to fill in wetlands for a rail yard to haul in the coal ash, which is where the controversy is now centered. (It’s interesting that the plan to mitigate the wetlands encroachment is to create artificial wetlands in the Oconee-Wilkinson Wetlands Mitigation Bank — more than 100 miles from Wayne County.)
Wednesday night (March 16), Wayne County Commissioners hosted an informational meeting with 500 people present for presentations to the Army Corps of Engineers about the situation. Also present were representatives of Republic Services, and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division.
Click to enlarge cartoon.
The week before, The Press-Sentinel produced a 20 full page section with current details of the predicament. (The section carried no advertising.)
It all started back in the 1980s, when new rules promulgated on landfills use and operation. Among those provisions were how landfills would be built, including providing thick protective layers to keep liquid material from leaching into the ground. This “garbage juice” would be required to have a sophisticated system from the collection of this leachate.
In the 1990s, a firm began discussion with Wayne County on details of a regional landfill, which came into being in 1994. This original company was purchased by Republic Services in 1996, and first consisted of 902 acres. Later it would add another 1,351 acres, and a total of 2,253 acres.
With coal ash causing problems in other states, Republic saw opportunity, and sought to construct a rail yard for unloading coal ash from other areas at the Wayne location. It was in January 2016 when the newspaper found out about this. (That’s when the newspaper learned that the EPA does not send public notices any more unless someone asks to be on their mailing list.) Local residents are worried that this trash, often with toxic materials, might contaminate its water resources, even including the deep Floridan Aquifer and possibly poison the major waterway in the area, the Altamaha River.
Now the question is if the private company in question, that is Republic Services, is going to get the authority to dump coal ash at the Wayne County site.
As The Press-Sentinel wrote this week: “One thing remains clear. Back in the early 1990s, no one could have dreamt that the solution to Wayne County’s Subtitle D problem might one day be envisioned as a grand destination for a toxic substance from throughout the Southeast and possibly beyond.”
Wow! Watch out! Something like this can happen anywhere!
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