Adams County supervisors hear objections to proposed waste dump

NATCHEZ, Miss. (Nov. 6) – The county board heard residents’ objections today to plans for a landfill locating in south Adams County to dispose oil-industry wastes, but supervisors said they have little control in deciding if it can be permitted.

 

Since the county has no land-use restrictions that would prohibit siting such a waste dump, any permitting decisions rest with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

 

“The buck is going to stop with somebody else and not us,” said Adams County board President Warren Gaines. “We don’t have anything to do with it…. It’s not a question on whether we’re going to allow or not allow.”

 

However, residents attending the meeting urged the board to enact a county zoning ordinance to prohibit the oil-waste landfill. Gaines said supervisors would discuss that in the future. However, he later downplayed prospects for the board enacting such a land-use restriction.

 

The Shieldsboro Road property that developers envision for the dump is owned by county Supervisor Kevin Wilson, who’s in the oil business and has cited a need for such a facility to serve the oil industry in a five-state region. He stepped out of today’s meeting about the proposed landfill on the advise of board attorney Scott Slover. Government officials are prohibited from exerting undue influence in their public positions for personal financial gains.

About 15 miles south of Natchez along U.S. 61, the property is located by Waste Management’s household trash dump, which has been permitted by DEQ since 1990.

Citing concerns about oilfield contaminants being buried in Adams County to potentially pollute land, water and air, residents are asking the board to block its location. “The perfect thing to do is create some zoning,” said Steve Strickland, who noted he owns land next to the proposed facility.

 

The St. Catherine Creek National Wildlife Refuge is located near the site.

 

The waste-dump developers are seeking permits from the state Department of Environmental Quality, according to company representative Aimee Blount, who met last month with the Board of Supervisors to ask if the county had zoned out such facilities in that area. It has not.

 

At today’s meeting, county Supervisor Ricky Gray questioned whether Wilson should’ve been present at the October meeting in the discussions about whether the county had zoning laws impacting the landfill’s location on his land. Slover noted those discussions only involved answering Blount’s question and did not require a board decision or vote.