EKY county backs out of landfill agreement, raising specter of fines, litigation
The Pike County Fiscal Court voted 3-1 Tuesday night to rescind the agreement it entered into with a waste management company to convert an abandoned coal mine into a 450-acre landfill.
The move raises unanswered questions about the county’s obligations under the contract and whether it may have exposed itself to civil litigation.
A packed special-called meeting billed as an opportunity for county commissioners to ask the county attorney’s office questions about the controversial landfill project quickly devolved into shouting and name-calling Feb. 24, as members of the public threw insults at Judge-Executive Ray Jones and insisted that the proposal be rescinded.
After briefly meeting in executive session to discuss potential or pending litigation, the commission voted in open session to rescind the host agreement over Jones’ strong objections.
The judge-executive, who was the lone “no” vote on rescinding the agreement, backed the Feb. 10 contract as an economic development project that would save the county money. An existing Pike County landfill is nearing capacity, and the fiscal court has not set aside funds to close it.
But residents near the former Premier Elkhorn mine in Myra say they fear the mega landfill accepting trash from several states by truck and train into Pike County would turn the mountainous Appalachian community into the region’s dump. The delicate land left behind by several failed coal mining ventures could give way to an environmental disaster that would threaten their livelihoods and ruin their homes, opponents say.
“I’ve got a farm, and they’re going to put me out of business,” said James Cochran, 70, a retired coal miner who lives in Dorton, about 5 miles from landfill project. “The bees is going to die. I ain’t going to have no bees. The chickens are going to die. I ain’t going to have no chickens. This is my retirement.”
The commission’s unplanned decision to renege its end of the development deal could be costly.
The contract the fiscal court authorized says American Land Reserve LLC, a company owned and operated by Connecticut-based USA Waste and Recycling, “is committing substantial capital expenditures and undertaking a large-scale, long-term infrastructure investment in express reliance upon the County’s obligations under this Agreement.”
USA Waste and Recycling did not immediately respond to a Herald-Leader request for comment Tuesday evening, and it no company representatives publicly identified themselves at the meeting.
If the county doesn’t hold up its end of the deal, it could be obligated to pay back the company for what it has already spent on the project, plus an estimate of the profits the company would have earned during the remaining portion of the term and additional expenditures the company may incur because of the county’s decision to back out.
The parties agreed to cover “reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs and litigation expenses” if either defaults on its obligations. Failure to do so could open the door to arbitration or a federal lawsuit.
Last week, Jones said he believes the company has spent about $50,000 already in site work to study the abandoned mine. Assistant Pike County Attorney Roy Downey told the commissioners he does not have an accurate estimate of how much money the company has already spent. He later declined to comment when asked by a Herald-Leader reporter.
County Commissioner Freddie Lewis, who made the motion Tuesday to rescind the contract, said none of the candidates for judge-executive or county commissioner in this year’s general election support the landfill project, and Jones isn’t running to reclaim his seat. For that reason, he said, it was better to end the deal now in order to keep down any costs the county may have to pay back to the company.
“If we waited, we could have bankrupted this county,” Lewis told the Herald-Leader after Tuesday’s meeting.
Pike County is one of only six counties in Kentucky that owns and operates its own landfill. Jones has said the county’s stake to preserve or close its landfill on Ford Mountain, near the community of Meta, is expensive. The fiscal court has already voted once during his term to increase waste collection fees. The company seeking to develop a private landfill near Myra had offered to accept the county’s trash for free.
“Maybe, just maybe, there’s two sides to this story,” Jones said during Tuesday’s meeting. “You all can do whatever you want to do on it. I just suggest you let the other party come down here and speak.”
The fiscal court was scheduled to hear representatives from the company speak at a meeting next week. It’s unclear whether that meeting will proceed as planned.
