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Hundreds Cram Public Hearing To Oppose Conecuh Woods Landfill
March 11, 2011
Hundreds of people turned out at Reid State Technical College in Evergreen Thursday to speak their minds against a proposed 5,100 acre landfill planned for near Repton, Alabama — about 35 miles upstream from North Escambia.1
The crowd was estimated at about 800 at an auditorium with a capacity of only about 430. Hundreds of people were forced to wait in line outside for their turn at the Conecuh County Commission public hearing on the landfill proposal.
Conecuh Woods was given the first 30 minutes of the public forum to make their case, while other residents and other speakers were give up to five minutes each.
“Conecuh Woods will be a 5,000 acre landfill, with 1,600 acres of active disposal area,” said Conecuh Woods developer Jimmy Stone. “The fact is, on any one day, Conecuh Woods will be no different from hundreds of other landfills.”
Stone said the landfill liner planned for Conecuh Woods would not leak — a concern that has been expressed by governments downstream, including the county commissions in Escambia counties in Florida and Alabama and the Town of Century.
“I suppose Conecuh Woods expects us to believe that a stinking garbage dump can transform an area and become the catalyst for economic growth. It is difficult for me to believe that somehow Conecuh Woods has stumbled onto an unprecedented scientific breakthrough and has developed a way to create what might the world’s first odorless and leak-proof garbage dump,” Melvin Cofield said in opposition to the landfill.
“I’m asking you to simply do the right thing and vote no to this landfill,” said Ruth Harrell of Flomaton.
“You may have all heard ‘we don’t want a dump’,” developer Stone said. “No worries, I don’t either. Conecuh Woods will not be a dump.” Stone said facility will be environmentally friendly, and it will provide much needed jobs for the area.
Many governments in South Alabama and Northwest Florida have spoken out in opposition to Conecuh Woods, including Escambia counties in Alabama and Florida, the Town of Century, Atmore and Flomaton.
Conecuh Woods’ landfill, would include a 1,600 acre “disposal cell” from Range to Repton to near the Big Escambia Creek. Big Escambia Creek flows southward into Escambia County, Alabama, through Flomaton and drains through a North Escambia swamp into the Escambia River and then Escambia Bay.
“Nobody knows more than we do that Florida’s rules on water quality are tougher than Alabama’s,” Century Mayor Freddie McCall said. “If it comes into our river, Florida is in trouble immediately.”
The public hearing in Evergreen wrapped up Thursday afternoon without a vote from the commission; they have 90 days to make up their minds. Even if they give their approval, the project may still remain on hold. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley issued an executive order declaring a moratorium on new landfills in the state.
Comments
19 Responses to “Hundreds Cram Public Hearing To Oppose Conecuh Woods Landfill”
yessir i see where you are coming from commonsence, more and more the country is going to be depending on southern farmers to feed our country. the more we can farm and grow, with or without assistance, locally, the better off we will be. all we need to do is look back at the severe “dustbowl” of the thirties to see things can change drastically over just a few short months. some say the huge ogalla aquifer in the plains states will be dry by 2025 at the current withdrawal rate due to irrigation. at any rate we have plenty of fresh clean water, if we can continue to protect it and our land. the independant small farmer is going to make a come back and what better place than this!
REGARDING:
“With the price of food, has anyone considered FARMING these acres? 1600 acres can produce a lots of food for people to eat. Why not developed the land for food? The Government can contribute equipment for this purpose.”
Do you really think there is a shortage of farmland and farm equipment for food crops? If there were, farmers wouldn’t be raising things other than food, like cotton for example.
You can get about 12 million calories per acre growing corn (45% more growing potatoes) so if you could get all the land into corn, you would produce enough corn to feed about 26,300 people for a year, feeding them nothing but corn (about 38,000 people on potatoes). (assuming 2000 calories per day per person, of course) I’m guessing that’s per crop so you might get quite a bit more from multi-crops in a year.
But you aren’t wanting to feed people, rather to drop the price of food by having THE GOVERNMENT do the farming for us. Yeah,like that’s gonna work. The government’s been paying people to NOT produce food for years. That drives the prices up and insures higher prices for farmers so they don’t go broke. They’ve also insisted on turning corn into auto fuel to buy votes from Iowa farmers.
Regardless, do you really want any government agency in charge of deciding if you have food or not?
Doubting David
With the price of food, has anyone considered FARMING these acres? 1600 acres can produce a lots of food for people to eat. Why not develope the land for food. The Government can contribute equiptment for this purpose. It can be sold to markets, create jobs, redeveloped year after year, cut cost for people in the area who has to eat. Everyone thinks of lining there pockets, instead of lining there stomachs with vegetables something that is life sustaning.
I rest my case.
Thanks Ian for taking the time to explain how these liners work.
My profession is rebuilding Automotive Transmissions and has been for 35 years.
To properly rebuild today’s Automatic Transmissions, you have to deal with 3 different divisions, precision mechanics, complicated hydraulics and a series of electronics
And also computer diagnostics with the vehicle.
When I explain to a customer what made their Automatic Transmission downfall, some understand, where others have to go to the tear down bench to see what caused the downfall.
A few understand, but after seeing the internal workings of a modern Automatic Transmission, the majority say, I’m glad you know what you’re doing, just fix it.
I have a better understanding of how the liners work after your professional explanation but the point I’m getting to is that many won’t.
Question: Is there a website that you know of, that has a detailed pictorial explanation of how the liners work so that everyone can get a better understanding?
The people of South Alabama and Northwest Florida take a lot of pride in their water streams, right down to a little 2 feet wide branch in a meadow or pasture.
I personally was born and raised about 1/2 mile from Little Escambia Creek near Flomaton, Alabama.
Some of my most cherished childhood memories relate to this cold and clean Creek.
It’s where the children learn to swim, It’s a place to cool off on a hot summer day,
It’s a breath of fresh air, It’s that smile on a 5 year old face when they catch their first fish.
It will be hard to convince the people that these traditions won’t be threatened by this huge Landfill, and they’ll fight it to the bitter end as long as their not convinced.
If the commisioners really want to create jobs and help the enviroment then why don’t they recruit a recycling plant? Something that helps the enviroment and creats real long lasting jobs. Recycling in a huge business and is a win win for all concerned.
Why don’t they build a trash burner, burn the waste and produce electricity ? I dont want that stuff in the ground. We will drink it later.
@Ian D Peggs all of what you have said may be correct. And, might I add a very good description by you. But the people does not want to have this dump in their back yards. The bottom line here is no the people are speaking and the investors and politicians need to listen. Pretty simple no means no what can I say.
I do appreciate your explanitation that is very good information.
A note to Fred, and others, about landfill liners, with which I have been involved for almost 30 years – quality assurance, leak location, durability, failure analysis, expert witness work. Well-designed lining systems consist of two high density polyethylene geomembranes (plastic liners) each typically 0.060 in. or 0.080 in. thick. They are impermeable, just as the much thinner liner in your above-ground swimming pool is. After construction, and before waste is placed, they are 100% checked electrically for leaks. When operating, the design is such that the head of leachate (dirty water – garbage juice and incident rain water that penetrates the waste) on the upper liner does not exceed 1 ft. Excess water is removed for treatment. However, should there be a small hole in the upper liner, yes, it will leak, due to the likely water head on top of the liner. However, the lower liner, separated from the upper liner by an in-plane drainage system (sand, gravel, plastic mesh), contains the leakage and drains it to a sump from which it is continuously pumped. Thus, unlike the upper liner, there is no constant hydraulic head on the lower liner. In other words, it does not leak. Leakage will only occur if the small dribble of leaking water coincidentally passes directly over the similar small leak somewhere else in the lower liner. The chances of that happening are miniscule – far less than being injured as you drive or walk to work tomorrow morning. Therefore, while a single upper liner (geomembrane) just might leak, the leachate removal system above the upper liner, the drainage system between the two liners, the lack of a hydraulic head on the lower liner, and the placement of the lower liner on a compacted soil (low permeability) subgrade – in. other words, the engineered lining SYSTEM – does not leak. If Fred wants a permeable liner or lining system, let him be my guest, but I would not want to drink his groundwater.
For those that think Washington DC is the answer, ask yourself, “How well have they done with the BP oil spill?”
DC has no vested interest in “saving” an area of the country that resoundingly voted against 0bama – and every opportunity to punish is to them a delight.
No hope, just change – for the worse.
@ Bert Hayes it’s good to see your comments here. Stay on as a regular reader and post your comments. It will be interesting to see what you share.
I think a lot of you have read some of my oppisition to this in previous postings. But, as I have said in the past the commisioners who did nothing or voted for it would be out of a job next election. Which is probably very true but in the mean time the harm has been done by allowing them to have their way and not ours. The commissioners will not have only sold out against the will of the majority but the future generations and all habitants in the future.
I truly understand there is a need for dumps to get rid of trash. I understand that gases can be extracted from the dumps. I understand that we have to take ownership and the responsibility of recycling. All these things I understand but I also understand that the dumps if needed that badly could be located else where like on goverment lands in the desrets where it is not a threat to lives. I also understand that the Conecuh County Commissioners had better be ready to take responsibility for their decissions. They need to remember thay have to live in these communities as well and this will not set very well no matter how much money is brought in to them or to the counties or state. Peple have spoken they simply do not want it. What part of “no” do they not understand!!!
Wake up and listen to your voters where you agree with your voters or not is irrelevent they are speaking. The very same people who put you where you are. Remember that!
I agree everyone should be more conscious of what we are wasting. We are a spoiled society. We should be responsible and learn to re-cycle etc… but on the issue of the Conecuh County Dump, it is too big for the county to absorb all of the trash etc. that will be trucked and railroaded in. Just visit the Allied Waste “dump” just inside the Escambia county line, it is horrible and just imagine it is a small dump compared to this one. I hope and pray those commissioners do the right thing and vote NO… they should be using their time to work on more issues than this……this one should’ve been a no brainer 4 years ago and they could have moved on to other things.
I’m assuming the moratorium against new landfills by the governor is just a budgeting thing. Whatever it is, it won’t be permanent. Let’s look out for an “end run” move by those in power who may be getting, or might get, money on this deal. You know, maybe they think they can bide their time, let the noise and opposition die down and then get the landfill approved while we’re “sleeping”. Ain’t gonna happen. Wait until they meet a thousand people circling the dump site, arms locked, to physically bar the bulldozers if this thing is approved.
Judging from the massive turnout, and the huge opposition to this dump, if the commissioners do cave on this thing, the ones voting in favor will probably be looking for something else to do come next election.. I do agree with interested reader however, and I also believe that the commissioners will vote in favor of this.. There is just too much money and influence behind this thing..
I have a strong feeling that the commissioners are going to cave on this one. I hope and pray that Gov. Bentley and the elected rep. and senators will step up and protect their state and Fl. too.
It might be to our best interest to be sending our complaints to the President in Washington DC.
New Laws need to be set, controlling where a Landfill of this size can and can’t be placed, depending on the average inches of rainfall per year.
Putting a liner in a Landfill is defeating the whole Landfill process.
The idea is to bleed the contaminates into the soil.
With a liner the contaminates can go nowhere but up.
Come on folks, lets get some letters heading to Obama.
He could be a real hero with this stupid scheme.
Another thing, has anyone considered the smell that will be created on a hot sunny day when the moisture from the soil is being withdrawn by the sun.
You would likely smell it up to 50 miles away on certain days with a Landfill this size.
Well lets do this. Lets take some leak proof containers of any size, fill them up with dirt and set them on this property.
If they never purge over with when it rains, then I think their liner will work fine.
What do you think would happen?
Do these people think everybody is stupid.
The contaminates are going to purge from the soil and wash to the creeks.
A five year old would know this.
We all need to evaluate our environmental footprint and seek ways to reduce our creation of garbage. If we do not, we will be leaving our children and grandchildren an entire world that is a garbage dump. Simple changes include composting all biodegradable kitchen waste (such as fruit/vegetable peels, egg shells, tea bags, coffee grounds & filters–any uncooked, oil-free items), use reuseable cloth bags for purchases instead of getting new plastic ones at every shopping trip, recycle cans and glass, donate shoes, clothes household items to thrift shops. Be environmentally conscious and reduce your household trash.
I am the author of “Sharecropper’s Son”, an autobiography of a lad in the Georgia Piedmont during the Great Depression and before the days of a ‘Throw-away’ society.
I think the good folks of Conecuh are on target for a Jeffersonian survey of 8 square miles or 5,120 acres is too much for Conecuh. NIMBY does not apply here, but all of the US must soberly look at waste, buying what we don’t need with money we don’t have (credit) and we have to face the reality of the trend to disaster. Kids today will say “Waste is our ‘GROSS’ national product.”
I am pleased to get acquainted with North Escambia. I wrote 250 articles for the Gulf Coast Newspapers and quit after 20 months because my income tax was frightening. I write occasionally for the Mobile Press-Register as time permits.
Thanks for your coverage.
Bert