Dear Editor:

It’s big and it’s bad and will only get worse if it is allowed to continue. Nothing good can come of dumping 35 million compacted cubic yards of the world’s garbage and trash so near the streams that supply the water that we drink, bathe, swim and boat in, and eat the fish from. Speaking of the Turkey Run Landfill, Jeannine Honicker, Chair of the local Sierra group, put it clearly when she wrote, “The bottom line is, do we want the poisons from that landfill coming out our faucets? No way! This is personal. Fighting this is fighting to protect our health and the health of our children…”

Locally we do not need more space for our solid waste. Georgia is becoming the dumping ground for the world’s waste because it is profitable for the private owners of commercial landfills. Landfill owners have contributed liberally to politicians and lobbied successfully to allow the importation of waste. In 2007, the Georgia EPD reported 31 years of remaining capacity in MSW landfills in the State, and additional permits have been issued since that time, so for the near future the State is equipped to handle the in-state trash. The October 2008 Troup County Hogansville Solid Waste Management Plan predicts that it will be 30 years before the publicly owned and operated LaGrange landfill will reach disposal capacity and that it will produce economically viable quantities of landfill gas for the next 50 years.

Close by, the Columbus Pine Grove public MSWL has 33 years of remaining capacity. Turkey Run is not being built to handle trash from Hogansville, LaGrange, or Troup County; it is for waste that other places do not want and are willing to pay to have it hauled in and dumped here. If there is nothing wrong with this imported garbage, why do other areas not keep it in their own neighborhoods?

One prominent local official has explained that the only radioactive waste to be “permitted” in the Turkey Run Landfill will be biomedical waste such as from doctors’ offices and hospitals. How is anyone to know that only “permitted” waste will be going in? Too, the danger from radioactivity is cumulative, builds up and up. A little bit a lot of times adds up to as much as a lot a few times.

There is nothing good for the local citizens in this landfill. It will not bring prosperity or even revenue to Troup County. Profits will be going to the private landfill company. The Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Development Center found that the “Proposed project is not in the best interest of the region and therefore the State.” The Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper with its 5,000 members has strongly opposed the Turkey Run Landfill, saying in part, “…storm water runoff…may contaminate surface water that …could degrade the drinking water supply for the City of LaGrange and other downstream water supplies.”

Also…“Proposed monitoring requirements are inadequate to detect the toxins and other pollutants that could be released…affecting public health and the natural environment.” Similar resolutions have been endorsed by the Georgia Sierra Club, Eco-Action, the GA. NAACP, as well as other local groups and individuals. Why are local, state and federal officials not paying attention?

We should responsibly take care of our own trash. We should not sit silently by and allow the trash from the world to be dumped on our land and especially our water supply. Why accept that dangerous chemicals, electronic and radioactive waste will be included in that waste from outside our local borders? Why are we allowing our tax dollars to be used to build pipe lines and roads to make it more profitable for outside waste companies to haul in waste and dump it on our landscape? Why have elected officials who say they are “opposed” to the landfill been cooperating with each other and landfill proponents to obtain public funds to facilitate the dump? Generally, local governments are the first and best line of defense against landfills. Why are ours letting us down? Why haven’t they been fighting this from way back? Any why are the citizens allowing them to refuse to take a stand?

Derek Hay

Hogansville