‘Politics’ stalled fracking bill
A fight over regional landfill fees put the House and Senate at odds over legislation originally intended for Northwest Georgia.
A bill intended to protect Northwest Georgia water from the effects of fracking died when a senator south of Atlanta tacked on a landfill surcharge that would have affected the whole state.
“I hated that it slowed down the fracking bill,” said Sen. Burt Jones, R-Jackson. “I talked to the bill’s sponsor and he was fine with it. But then it got caught up in what’s called politics.”
House Bill 205 would have updated Georgia’s 40-year-old mining law to include regulations for hydraulic fracturing — injecting
liquid at high pressures into underground rocks to force open fissures and extract natural gas or oil.
Reserves are only expected to be found in eight Northwest Georgia counties, including Floyd. The measure was sponsored by Rep. John Meadows, R-Calhoun, and local Reps. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome; Eddie Lumsden, R-Armuchee; and Christian Coomer, R-Cartersville. It passed the House 162 to 1.
When it got to the Senate in late March, however, Jones amended it to increase the host government surcharge to $3 a ton from $1 a ton at regional landfills run by private companies. The Senate backed the change, 52-0, but the House refused and the whole bill died for lack of a consensus.
Jones said there are 16 landfills around the state where national operators such as Waste Management, Republic and Advanced Disposal bring in outside trash. State law sets their payment to the host county, which nearly always starts losing its tax base.
“Nobody wants to be next to a landfill,” Jones said. “When a company gets a permit it inevitably grows because … people around it want to sell their property. They keep expanding and devaluing property in that county.”
In Jones’ Butts County, the landfill went from 100 acres to 200 acres, and now there’s another 200 acres under contract. The host fee increase was added to HB 205, he said, because it cites the same state code section as the fracking bill and it was too late in the 40-day session to get a new bill passed.
“It’s unfortunate. All this got brought to my attention late in the legislative process and I tried to piggyback it on the House bill,” Jones said.
He had cosponsor support from Northwest Georgia Sens. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, and Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome — along with a number of lawmakers with regional landfills in their districts. But lobbyists for the waste companies pushed back in the House, Jones said, and a conference committee failed to resolve the differences.
The measure can be revived next year, and Jones said he’ll pull the controversial amendment.
“I’ll get a separate bill drafted and let Chairman Meadows get his fracking bill passed,” he said.
Floyd County Manager Jamie McCord said the delay is not expected to put local groundwater supplies at risk.
A tussle about a decade ago over Florida Rock mining led the county to enact some stringent zoning regulations. Mining operations are limited to heavy industrial zones, on property larger than 200 acres, and the company must apply for a special use permit.
“We have one of the strongest ordinances in the state,” McCord said. “We signed on (in support of HB 205) so other counties could get protections.”