Alabama’s Mobile County rejects WM’s Chastang Landfill expansion proposal

The Mobile County Commission in Alabama has rejected a proposal that would have tripled capacity at the Chastang Landfill operated by WM in Mt. Vernon.

Commissioner Randall Dueitt seconded the motion brought by Commissioner Merceria L. Ludgood at its Dec. 8 meeting.

“I can’t help them any other way,” said Ludgood, who represents the community surrounding the landfill. “I can’t help them get it moved. It’s there. But the thing they’ve asked me consistently for the last 18 years is that if we have to live with this, we just don’t want any more; we have all we can handle now. I plan to vote consistently with that request from the people who live in that area.”

Jaime Betbeze, a Mobile attorney representing WM, addressed the commission Dec. 8. He outlined that WM’s plan fell in line with similar applications that have been approved by the county commission in recent years, most notably one to expand the Axis landfill operated by EcoSouth, a competitor to WM.

According to Betbeze, the Axis landfill was modified in 2020 to accept up to 5,000 tons per day from 18 counties. WM was asking the commission to increase capacity at Chastang to 5,000 tons per day, up from 1,725 tons per day.

The proposal also would have expanded Chastang’s coverage region to accept waste from Mobile, Baldwin, Clarke, Choctaw, Conecuh, Covington, Escambia, Monroe and Washington counties in Alabama. It would have added nine counties from neighboring states, Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties in Florida; and Jackson, Harrison, Hancock, George and Greene counties in Mississippi, as well.

“We’ve made it clear that this is very consistent with applications that have been approved by the county commission in recent years,” Betbeze said, adding that the Axis landfill covers 18 counties and accepts waste from other states.

Betbeze argued that the additional capacity would benefit residents of Mobile County in three ways. The first was that having people from outside the county pay for operating the Chastang landfill would allow costs to remain lower for Mobile County residents.

Second, the city of Mobile’s Solid Waste Disposal Authority receives royalties based on the tonnage that comes into the landfill, which would increase if allowed to expand. It also would generate more revenue because of a 50-cent-per-ton host fee that would have been applied on all waste that comes in from outside of the county.

“This application is completely consistent with an application that has already been granted by Mobile County, as well as the maximum daily tonnage that had been approved for the Axis landfill of 5,000 tons per day,” Betbeze said. “That’s not what is anticipated, but the reason we have asked for that, and this is entirely consistent with the county’s solid waste management plan, is that there be duplication of efforts, and that is a way to increase competition and to help keep disposal costs down for all of the residents of Mobile County. This, specifically, does accomplish that stated goal of the Solid Waste Management Plan.”

However, the commissioners pushed back on WM’s assertions, adding that the current solid waste management plan does not allow municipal solid waste to be hauled into the county for disposal. They also cited a report from the Solid Waste Disposal Authority released Nov. 12 recommending that “it’s in the residents’ best interest to keep waste generated outside of the county from using the space of the local landfill, the one that the city of Mobile owns.”

Ludgood added that a key difference between the Chastang and Axis landfills is that the Axis landfill is operated in an industrial area of the county, while the Chastang site is in the middle of a residential community.

“I just have to be perfectly honest, ever since I was elected in 2007, the people who live in and around that landfill, this has been a major concern of theirs,” Ludgood said. “The thing that was most troubling for them was when the landfill was cited in the ’70s, I believe, they had really no representation in that fight. It was a city landfill, and basically someone decided that it was a good idea to put it right there. And ever since then, anything that happened with that they’ve really had no say-so about it.”