Mableton Waste Transfer Station Denied by BOC

About 50 people left the Cobb Board of Commissioners boardroom on Tuesday morning and erupted into cheers as their unofficial spokeswoman Shelia Edwards exited the boardroom. The Cobb BOC voted unanimously following a public hearing to deny a waste transfer station’s application to accept municipal solid waste, also known as household garbage.

The group of people was composed of mostly residents of Legacy at the River Line, along with other South Cobb residents who opposed the Bankhead C & D Transfer Station’s application for a permit to accept household waste.

Legacy residents, organized under the group name Legacy Cares, have met regularly with local and state officials, written letters to them and even garnered 1,200 signatures for a petition.

The residents say the transfer station, which has accepted household waste since 2010 without a proper permit, emits noxious odors and adversely affects their quality of life and property values. Many of the homes of the housing community are within 1,000 feet of the transfer station.

“It’s what we expected and it’s what we wanted,” Edwards told South Cobb Patch as she left the boardroom. “But the fight’s not over. We don’t know what we’ve been subjected to…We want them shut down today.”

 The waste facility’s attorney, Garvis Sams, presented reasons the Cobb Board of Commissioners should approve the permit during Tuesday’s public hearing.

 Sams pointed out that approval of the permit had been recommended by Georgia Regional Transit Authority, the Atlanta Regional Commission and originally by the county’s planning staff. County planners changed their recommendation after the Georgia Department of Transportation conducted a study on behalf of the Federal Airport Authority and determined that the waste transfer station is too close to the Fulton County Airport and could attract birds, which would interfere with flights.

Sams also told the BOC that area surrounding the waste transfer station is “mostly zoned heavy industrial.”

Kevin Ross, attorney representing Legacy Cares, said that Sams presented a “mischaracterization” of the area surrounding the facility and that his description is inconsistent with the findings of two studies approved by the BOC in 2009 and in 2010, which deemed the area primarily residential.

Before the board made its final vote, former Cobb solid waste director Judy Skeel explained that South Cobb is saturated with waste transfer stations.

South Cobb Commissioner Woody Thompson asked her if another one would be “overkill.”

“Yes,” she answered.

Although the board denied the facility’s application, the facility owners and attorney still have 30 days to appeal the decision.