Cobb BOC may reject waste transfer station's application at Tuesday public hearing

One Mableton neighborhood may soon see a victorious end to a months-long battle to keep a waste transfer station out of their backyards. The Bankhead C & D waste transfer station has applied to accept 150,000 tons of municipal solid waste, or household garbage, at its location at Veterans Memorial Highway.

The facility, which now accepts construction and demolition materials, is just 1,000 feet from some of the homes at the Legacy at River Line subdivision, as well as restaurants, a gas station and other businesses.

The Cobb Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing Tuesday at 9 a.m. regarding the waste transfer station’s application for a special land use permit to accept household garbage. 

The public hearing was postponed from its originally scheduled Feb. 21 date while the Federal Aviation Authority conducted a study to determine if the transfer station would attract birds, which would be hazardous to aircraft. The Georgia Department of Transportation conducted the study on behalf of the FAA and determined that the permit should not be approved for the Bankhead transfer station because it is too close to the airport.

According to the April 18 letter from GDOT, the FAA prefers any waste transfer stations accepting MSW to be outside a five-mile radius of an airport. Bankhead C & D is two miles from the Fulton County Airport and only 2,000 feet from a proposed runway for the airport.

The Cobb Planning Commission, which initially recommended approval of the waste transfer station, now recommends denial of the permit.

Residents of Legacy, along with other concerned Mableton citizens, have met regularly with local, county and state officials about their concerns that the waste transfer station would adversely affect their quality of life, health and property values.

The petition opposing Bankhead C & D’s application now has more than 1,700 names.

In a letter dated May 9, 2012, the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources issued Bankhead C & D a notice of violation.

According to the letter from EPD, “evidence exists that solid waste is or has been in recent past been disposed of in ways consisted with that of a landfill operation and not of a transfer station.”

Additionally, the facility owners are scheduled to make a plea during an arraignment hearing on Thursday in magistrate court after the court granted the company a continuance from early April at the request of the company’s attorney Garvis Sams of Sams, Larkin & Huff, LLP in Marietta.

Bankhead C&D has accepted MSW without a proper since 2010, despite being cited multiple times by Cobb County. Despite being first cited for accepting household garbage without a permit in January 2011, the company did not apply for the permit for another nine months.

Sams said the nine-month delay was because he was “waiting on Mr. Hosack and his staff” to let him know if the permit was needed since the company had received a waste acceptance permit from the state Department of Natural Resources, but not from the county. Currently, the company has a permit to only accept construction and demolition materials.

The company continued to accept household garbage for another six months, despite the citation in January 2011, until another one was issued on March 23 from county code enforcement.

Sams said the citation “is a little unusual,” since the company has applied for the proper permit which would remedy the reason for the citation.

If commissioners reject the facility’s permit, Bankhead C & D owners cannot reapply for 12 months. They can, however, file an appeal with the county’s Superior Court.