Locals lament second landfill

DEQ hears concerns before deciding whether to give permit

Tougaloo College student government leaders have a message for state officials: Don't approve another landfill on North County Line Road.

"They're not healthy. I'm already struggling with my asthma, and others are, too. Would you want your kids to put up with that?" student Courtney Coleman said at a community meeting last week that attracted about 150 Hinds and Madison county residents.

"A landfill is not only poisoning us, but Madison County and Mississippi," said Amber Williams, vice president of the college's student government association. "If the landfill continues, then the student body will rise. Many of us are registered to vote."

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is seeking comments from residents as it considers whether to issue a permit for the 94-acre landfill on North County Line Road.

"Before we make any decision on a permit, we want to hear the concerns of the people," said Melissa Collier, director of DEQ's office of community engagement.

The proposed landfill, NCL Waste LLC, was formerly known as the Bilberry site. It would be the second landfill on the line between Madison and Hinds counties and would sit to the north of the 165-acre Little Dixie landfill in operation since 1979.

Madison County has another landfill operated by the city of Canton, making it the only county with two solid-waste disposal sites. Seventeen other Mississippi counties have landfills.

Ridgeland resident Sylvia Thomas, president of the North Livingston Road Homeowners Association, said the stench, property depreciation, bad roads, stray animals, rodents and insects are problems caused by the existing landfill, and a second site will compound the problems.

"If you allow this landfill in the county, this will be a grave environmental injustice to this community," she said.

"We are just sick and tired of landfills and the birds, vermin and whatever that come with them," Hinds County Supervisor Doug Anderson said.

Madison County Board of Supervisors attorney Eric Hamer said in February that the board has held numerous hearings, "dating back to 1999," but Hinds County supervisors never attended or voiced their opinions in those public meetings.

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