MADISON COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – A temporary victory tonight in Madison County for opponents of a new dumping landfill proposal. The permits and applications brought forth by lawyers for the company have been canceled.
NCL Waste LLC has been trying to build a new landfill area right next to the Little Dixie Landfill since 2007. This would give Madison County three solid waste dumps, but the project faced another setback.
On Feb. 3. the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality received this letter from the attorney’s representing NCL Waste withdrawing all permit applications regarding the County Line Rd. project and terminate all papers for the project.
“It’s not needed; we have been trying to address that with the board of supervisors for years,” Sylvia Thomas, President of North Livingston Homeowners Association said. “And quite frankly it’s fallen on deaf ears. One landfill is not needed near a community of people.”
A brief victory for opponents to the landfill’s approval, but the project is still not going away. The following day, MDEQ also received a letter from Phoenix Waste LLC. Who’s the new manager of NCL Waste asking for the original permits and applications to remain intact and not withdrawn.
“Only eighteen of these sites in the state of Mississippi, no county has more than one except Madison County,” Ridgeland Alderman at Large D.I Smith explained. “We already have two. 64 counties have zero and we just don’t think it’s fair for other counties to bring their waste here when they don’t even have any landfill.”
The main arguments from people living in the area have been roads already in poor condition not being able to withstand more dump truck traffic, also air pollution taking over their lives.
“During the pandemic, everybody was wearing masks but living out here we been wearing masks,” Joeann Manuel told us. “It’s horrible, the smell is horrible, and you can’t stand out on your porch. The streets are horrible, you see that as you’re traveling up and down the streets.”
“It affects an entire community and we’re a rural community, we are country people love our area,” Thomas explained. “This is property my grandparents raised their children on. We don’t want any more devastation to the property.”
More than 120 homes are within one mile of the purposed site but NCL argued not all of them existed when the permits were first requested. And the Little Dixie Landfill has less than ten years of life left before becoming unusable.
We reached out to the management of Phoenix Waste for their next moves but haven’t heard back. MDEQ said they’ve received both letters and will make the proper decisions in the near future.
