State: Scott County landfill where Lexington takes its trash can’t expand. Now what?
A controversial Scott County landfill where Lexington has taken its trash since 2015 cannot expand, state environmental officials have ruled.
In April, Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca W. Goodman upheld a December decision by administrative law judge Virginia Gorley denying a permit for the landfill operator to expand.
Gorley wrote on Dec. 30 that the Energy and Environment Cabinet’s Division of Waste Management should deny an application by Waste Services of the Bluegrass for an expansion of its Central Kentucky Landfill in northern Scott County.
But the multi-year battle over the fate of the landfill is not over.
A lawyer for Waste Services of the Bluegrass said the company has appealed the cabinet’s decision to the Franklin Circuit Court.
“Since Waste Services of the Bluegrass filed its application with the cabinet eight years ago, it has followed the guidance and directions of the cabinet and has responded to every request made of it by the cabinet, expending vast amounts of time and money in the process,” said David Royse, a lawyer for Waste Services. “While we are troubled by this sudden reversal in position by the cabinet, we have filed for judicial review with the Franklin Circuit Court and we look forward to our opportunity to address this matter in court.”
Regardless, the cash-strapped Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government will continue to use Waste Services for its trash even if the landfill at 493 Double Culvert Road runs out of space. Fayette County awarded Waste Services its solid waste contract in 2015 and renewed it for an additional five years in June, despite some Scott County officials’ pleas not to do so.
Lexington’s contract with Waste Services says the company must find another landfill for Lexington’s trash if the landfill in Scott County reaches capacity, Lexington city officials said earlier this year. Waste Services also cannot charge Lexington more to take its trash to a different landfill, the contract says.
The city spends roughly $3.5 million a year for trash removal.
Some have said the landfill could run out of space in the next two years, depending on how much trash goes into the landfill and its compaction rate.
Most of the trash is from Fayette County.
In various state and court documents, Waste Services has said the expansion is needed. The company has also long argued the county knew it would expand when it purchased the landfill from the county in 1999.
Neighbors of the landfill have said odors and truck traffic were problems before 2015, when Fayette County starting sending its trash to Scott County.
But foul odors and accidents involving trash trucks escalated after 2015, Scott County residents said.
In 2016, a Georgetown woman was killed when two dump trucks got into an accident near the landfill. In 2017, a school bus was sideswiped by a dump truck near the landfill. No one was hurt in that accident.
The administrative action filed with the Energy and Environmental Cabinet over the landfill’s expansion permit is just the latest legal action involving the Central Kentucky Landfill.
More than a half-dozen lawsuits or administrative actions have been filed over the operations or expansion efforts of the Central Kentucky Landfill.
In May 2019, a class-action lawsuit was filed by landowners near the Double Culvert Road dump, alleging Waste Services of the Bluegrass was negligent in addressing “noxious odors.” Surrounding homeowners have suffered damages, the lawsuit alleged.
Waste Services has denied the allegations and says it has worked with environmental regulators to control odors at the landfill. A hearing in that case is scheduled for September.
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 12:54 PM.
