| Poplar Springs work remains on hold
Loudon County Commission held a special called
meeting Monday after a workshop to continue talks on the old Poplar
Springs Landfill remediation, which ultimately ended with a 5-5 tie.
Work was put on hold at the Aug. 7 meeting in
response to an exorbitant amount of legal fees and services taken
out of the Poplar Springs Landfill post-closure reserve.
Expenditures largely came from Nashville-based Luna
Law Group PLLC.
As of Monday, Budget Director Tracy Blair said
the reserve had $213,000, which does not include $15,000 in
pending legal services. Just four years ago, the reserve fund
was $437,968.
Commissioners Leo Bradshaw and David Meers
motioned and seconded, respectively, to move forward on the
project, with “no” votes coming from Kelly Littleton-Brewster,
Earlena Maples, Matthew Tinker, Harold Duff and Van Shaver.
“My vote is ‘no’ and I feel like I think everyone
knows my feelings on it, but I feel like Mr. (Herb) Newton has
not shared in the responsibility,” Littleton-Brewster said. “I
will not disagree the fact that it does need to be fixed, but I
feel like Mr. Newton has not shared any responsibility. I feel
like that JW Luna did not negotiate to the best of the county or
... for the three entities. So I will stand by my vote and say
that I hope we know where that money’s coming from.”
If the county moves forward with remediation, it
will be on the hook for maintaining the property for 10 years.
Both Shaver and Tinker agree Tennessee Department
of Environment and Conservation needs to determine the
responsible parties.
“I really from day one wanted to hear TDEC say,
‘Loudon County, stakeholders, you all are responsible for 90
percent of this, 80 percent, 100 percent of this’,” Shaver said.
“But we volunteered. I didn’t have a problem with getting that
kind of a statement. I do understand that this vote we’ve just
taken is certainly a very major type of a vote. We’ve heard all
of the doom (Loudon County Attorney Bob) Bowman has shared with
us. We’re again rolling the dice just like we did when we asked
TDEC to come in to clear us the first time.”
TDEC determined in 2015 there was no major
contamination of soil or groundwater on the old landfill site.
Bowman, who was present Monday night, said
the state would likely issue a show cause. He claimed TDEC
was “frustrated” with the county.
TDEC Director Patrick Flood at a June 2016
meeting said the state would send an order for all potential
responsible parties and require a court to deem
responsibility.
“I think that our action to this date by
requesting the tests, by employing the lawyers, by getting
TDEC involved, that all that does show that, yes, we are
aware of the problem,” Commissioner Bill Safferfield said.
“Yes, we were initially going to correct this. Now we are
not going to do anything. So we can’t plead ignorance over
what’s gone on because we’ve already stepped in. We’ve made
efforts to fix it. Now the other thing that does concern me
if — big if — if we are summoned with a show cause that the
end result is going to be a heck of a lot more than we
anticipated.”
Hopes are to recoup $30,000 from the state,
County Mayor Buddy Bradshaw said Monday. Initial plans for
the project were sent back to be altered, which resulted in
additional expenditures.
“We are confident the state will reimburse
that money in an amended request,” he said in a follow-up
interview.
With Monday’s tie vote, Buddy Bradshaw said
he expected to hear from TDEC this week.
|
BACK
8/28/17