Mableton Waste Transfer Station Gets Cited, Postpones Arraignment

At least 1,070 Mableton residents and community members­–those who signed a petition to stop a local waste transfer station from accepting household garbage– have achieved a small victory after Bankhead C&D Transfer Station was cited in March by the Cobb code enforcement for accepting municipal solid waste, or household garbage, without a proper special land use permit.

The company has applied for the permit with the county, but has not yet been approved. A public hearing in front of the Board of Commissioners about the permit application has been postponed from Feb. 21 until April 17

Although originally scheduled to make a plea during an arraignment hearing on Thursday in magistrate court, the court granted the company a continuance until May 17 at the request of the company’s attorney Garvis Sams of Sams, Larkin & Huff, LLP in Marietta.

Bankhead C&D has accepted municipal solid waste, or household garbage, since 2010. The company was originally cited in January 2011 for accepting household garbage without a proper permit. However, the company did not apply for the permit until nine months after the initial citation.

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.

“It’s a little unusual that a district commissioner to ask the board of commissioners to do something they wouldn’t normally do,” Sams told South Cobb Patch.

Even with the additional citation, Shelia Edwards, a Legacy resident, said this is still not yet the time for celebration.

Residents who live near the transfer station in subdivisions such as Legacy at the River Line, which is within 1,000 feet of the station, have held regular meetings about the issue, contacted commissioners and even created a website to prevent the approval of the company’s permit application.

Residents say the transfer station’s acceptance of household garbage would

In the station’s permit application, the company stated an expectation to receive 150,000 tons of garbage a year and to operate for 11 hours a day, Monday through Friday and nine hours each Saturday.

The online petition to stop the transfer station from accepting household garbage can be found at http://tiny.cc/notrash.