News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County Executive Denny Wayne Robinson meeting with TDEC officials and an engineer next week to discuss the next step on its landfill cell.
The county closed the cell for study last month as it approaches capacity. Robinson said they will discuss if it is time to open a new cell.
“We’re getting a survey to see what the elevations are to see how much room we still have left in it,” Robinson said. “Obviously, we don’t want to overfill, because then you have to move it. The second is about the permitting and the opening of a new cell.”
Robinson said the county is also measuring the water levels under the landfill adding to the length of closure. Robinson said there is no timeline as to when the study will be completed or when the cell will reopen. Robinson said the county continues to divert trash to gain an accurate measurements.
“The best way I can explain is if you have a leaky faucet in the house, the first thing that you do is turn the water off,” Robinson said. “Then you go in and start repairing it and do whatever needs to be done to get it operational. We have tried to do this for a while with trash coming in, but you just can’t work on it with trash coming in. We had to cut the flow off, and as soon as we did that, here comes the rain which delayed things.”
Sparta’s trash procedures have been impacted by the situation. The city has used the cell for free for several years but now has to transfer trash daily to McMinnville. Robinson said the county discussed the decision with the city as soon as the study moved forward.
“We never charged Sparta for their trash, and I guess they kind of got used to that of us taking care of it for them,” Robinson said. “There’s nothing major besides how they are changing how they operate right now.”
