Walker increases landfill fees
LaFAYETTE, Ga. — Walker County’s commissioner is charging more money to drop off trash at the county’s landfill.
Shannon Whitfield said Thursday night that household municipal waste will now cost $40 per ton, up from a previous rate of $38.50. Likewise, construction and demolition waste will cost $30 per ton. Before, the rate was $25.50.
County audits have shown that the landfill, located on Marbletop Road in Chickamauga, has lost about $500,000 a year. Whitfield made that operation a key component of his campaign last year, saying the landfill should break even or turn a profit. With the new prices, he projected the landfill will still lose $100,000 per year.
“These rates are not pleasant,” he said. “But the rates are something necessary.”
Steve Fraker, of Industrial Refuse Service, objected to the uptick in prices. He said Chattanooga businesses, like his, will no longer come to Walker County to dump trash at such a high rate. Fraker also questioned Whitfield’s analysis that the landfill was losing as much money as he said, even though the figures are from an independent audit.
In particular, he said the county breaks even on construction and demolition material at $6-$12 per ton. So even with the previous rates, the county should have made money.
“This is an excessive increase,” Fraker said. “In the realm of trash hauling and in the realm of the landfill business, these increases are too much. … If you want to get rid of $60,000 or $70,00 a month (in revenue), OK.”
On Thursday, Whitfield also hired a new manager for the landfill: Paine Gilley, of Rossville.
HIKING TRAIL
Whitfield announced that the county is no longer going to try to turn a property owner’s driveway into a public trail.
On Nov. 17, Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. ruled that the county could condemn a strip of property that was on the land of Stan Lowe and Jill Wyse. Under Heiskell, county workers planned to turn it into a hiking trail.
Wyse and Lowe believed the county was attempting to do this for political revenge. Both had been outspoken opponents of Heiskell’s going back to 2012, when Wyse said she discovered county workers polluted Rock Creek on Lookout Mountain while building a trail.
During his ruling in November, Van Pelt ruled that the county could take Lowe and Wyse’s property — but only after a 60-day stay. The judge predicted county workers would strip away trees and plants to build the trail in the last month of the Heiskell administration, only for Whitfield to order the work to stop when he took office Jan. 1.
Whitfield announced Thursday he was officially dropping the case, giving the property back to the residents. Lowe and Wyse also supported Whitfield during the campaign last year.
“It was taken away from private owners that was minding their own business,” he said.
He added: “I don’t see that it’s in good order for Walker County to spend thousands of dollars to try to develop trails when we’re broke.”
FRACKING
Whitfield put a 180-day moratorium on any applications to frack in Walker County.
Hydraulic fracturing is a practice in which drillers shoot high-pressure water and chemicals into rock thousands of feet below the surface. The water and chemicals open up the rock, giving drillers access to natural gas inside.
Like northern Alabama, northwest Georgia sits on top of the Conasauga Shale, a mostly untapped supply of potential energy. Geologists have told the Times Free Press they don’t know how much natural gas is in the shale. It could supply the country’s energy needs for years.
Whitfield fears drillers could contaminate aquifers and caves. He is asking a planning and zoning board to study fracking in the area and create regulations.
“We’ve got to research this, get on top of this,” he said. “This is a big exposure, because we can’t live without water.”
According to the EPD, only two companies have asked to drill in North Georgia since 2009. Of those, neither wanted to frack. Both elected to use air drilling.
While the region sits on a shale deposit, some geologists have told the Times Free Press, fracking does not seem to actually work. Much of the shale is already naturally broken up, meaning an energy company could drill for natural gas without forcing water and chemicals into it.
TINY HOMES
Whitfield is also asking the planning and zoning committee to study regulations on tiny homes built out of old cargo containers. He thinks some he’s seen online look ugly, and he wants to create restrictions on how you can build one.
The planning and zoning board next meets on March 16 at 7 p.m. in the Walker County Civic Center in Rock Spring. The agenda for the meeting has not yet been set.