Wanna buy a dump? Walker County may have a deal for you

Walker County’s landfill at 5120 N. Marbletop Road, south of Chickamauga, is being offered for sale to the highest bidder.

Buyers will bid on Site 1, the transfer station where household/municipal solid waste (MSW) is compacted for shipment to offsite disposal, and Site 2, the construction and demolition (C&D) site where building materials, furniture, carpet, metals and other inert materials are buried.

Commissioner Bebe Heiskell said she has never considered the landfill as a money-maker but rather a benefit to the community.

“We’ve made it available to the surrounding cities and the general public as a service,” she said.

But after years of operation, and the closing and capping of the MSW site more than a decade ago, the county-owned landfill has become a political issue.

“I’ve heard a lot of flak about it. It has generated a lot of opposition during this election cycle,” she said. “My opponents are saying this is the most pressing problem on the county’s economy. If it’s a problem, we can sell it.”

During his Republican primary campaign, Heiskell challenger Shannon Whitfield asserted county audits indicate the landfill lost hundreds of thousands of dollars each of the past three years, rang-

Notice to bid

Walker County is seeking Request for Proposal for sale of its Landfill/Transfer Facility located at 5120 North Marbletop Road, Chickamauga, Georgia 30707. Bid packages are available at the Facility and must be turned in by July 8, 2016, with bid openings set for July 14th, 2016, at 3:00 p.m. at the Walker County Commissioner’s Office.

ing from a $464,000 loss in 2012 to a loss of $654,490 in 2014.

According to the request for bids, the landfill receives about 37,000 tons of C&D waste annually, at a fee of $25.50 per ton. At the same time, the MSW transfer station handles about 22,000 tons each year at a charge of $38.50 per ton.

A successful bidder will be able to set its own rates and hours of operation.

The county closed its landfill to accepting municipal solid waste (MSW) in February 2002. Instead, since that time such material — whether brought in by an individual with a pickup truck or a commercial garbage truck — is compressed and hauled away.

The C&D landfill was issued a permit to operate in 2002 and, at current volume levels, can operate for about two years before it is full. The county is in the process of gaining permits to add an additional 19.85 acres to Site 2 that would create about 18 additional years of useful life.

The commissioner said material from the transfer station now is shipped to a landfill in Alabama.

“We pay the haulers and they take it to wherever they have a contract,” she said.

All in all, the property being offered for bids consists of about 125 acres, including 15 acres (east of Marbletop Road) that can be used for recycling yard waste to mulch. The county’s animal control facility will also be included in the sale, with the provision that it be maintained in its current location for 10 years.

The buyer will not be responsible for EPD monitoring of the closed Site 1 but will be allowed to test the site for extraction of methane gas to generate electric power. If such a power plant is feasible, the buyer can negotiate royalty payments to the county for such production.

“I don’t expect it to bring a lot,” Heiskell said of the proposed sale. “But this is the only C&D around here — the one we used in Birchwood, Tenn., closed this spring — and it has served the community for years.”

The county reserves the right to accept or reject any bids and is willing to negotiate the sale of heavy equipment such as trucks, loaders, compacters and power brooms that are used at the facility.

Anything and everything can go, if the price is right.

“I considered it a service that was being provided to the community,” Heiskell said. “But if it is such a problem, we can fix it quick.”