Polk County Commissioners continue to disagree about some of the landfill issues, and this one was no different as 4-1 votes on Tuesday night saw the approval of a new agreement limiting how much longer the Grady Road site will be taking regional trash, and what to do with all that gas being burnt of day and night.

Commissioners approved of two items during their regular session that seeks to extend the life of the landfill for local residential trash only, and to give commissioners income to work on shortfalls on what they make now from taking in trash from around Metro Atlanta through the operating contract with GFL.

Alongside that plan, a new partnership with a company called Paragon RNG LLC, co-owned by GFL Environmental with OPAL Fuels to extract the methane gas being generated from the trash already buried into a Renewable Natural Gas plant, or RNG Plant for short.

Commissioner Jordan Hubbard was the lone vote against both measures.

His reason for voting against them was due to issues he had with the plans being transparent to local municipalities, who already have issues with the County over failing to seek a change in the order from Judge Adele Grubbs to allow for Municipal Sludge to be included with local trash in the landfill.

Hubbard’s other issue with the plan was that trading 7 years of trash for the gas plant versus a requirement in the contract for the operator – GFL Environmental owning the original contract holder ETC of Georgia – would essentially be required to keep those cells open for well over the lifetime agreed upon in this new contract.

The Commissioners didn’t get into specific terms of the agreement on conversations on Tuesday night, but Commission Chair Hal Floyd did outline the broad strokes of the agreement – which will be approved when attorneys on both sides between GFL and the County finalize the language – during the work session.

Essentially, the landfill will stop taking trash from around the region’s transfer stations beginning in 2032, and the landfill will remain in operation for local trash only in two remaining cells for a period between 2045 to 2050.

When the regional collection stops, only Polk County waste will go into the landfill per Floyd’s statements during the session and in a written statement provided below to Polk Today ahead of the start of the meeting.

GFL will continue to provide service to local convenience centers at no cost to county residents as those remaining cells fill up, the statement and Floyd verbally noted.

Alongside this agreement, the County is signing a contract with Paragon RNG to build an RNG plant at Grady Road, connecting the gas system already in place and only expanding as cells close up to utilize the methane already being generated as a fuel source for a variety of uses.

The County will get a minimum of $750,000 per year for giving up the mineral rights to the gas, and a maximum of $1,500,000. Those are based on tiers for how much gas is extracted annually, and will eventually cap out upward of three years after the landfill closes as the amount of gas generated from the pile of trash will begin to decrease dramatically. Those are flat rates, meaning that at minimum the county gets the three-quarters of a million dollars no matter the price of methane, but could miss out on windfalls with a cap of the $1.5 million price annually for allowing Paragon RNG access to the natural gas.

Methane Gas collections in whole globally topped $94.5 billion in 2023.

However as it stands currently, the county nor GFL make any money of the gas being pumped from the landfill as part of required mitigation efforts for operations. Instead it is burned in a covered flume on site at around 3,400 CFM (cubic feet of gas a minute.)

Money generated from the project will ultimately end up in the general fund balance.

Floyd noted that it would have cost county taxpayers $4 million annually to get rid of trash when the landfill closes otherwise. His belief is this agreement not only extends the life of the landfill itself, but also provides time for future commissioners to determine a plan moving forward.

When Hubbard was questioning the deal during discussions ahead of the vote over the contract with Paragon RNG, Commissioner Ray Carter noted that as an economic development project the plant wasn’t following the typical route of new industries for building in Polk County, which does provide for some additional revenue incentives in terms of taxes.

He told Hubbard that since the $70 million investment expected in the construction of the plant comes with no tax abatements, meaning the county can collect property taxes on the new plant as soon as it is up and running. Carter also noted one additional advantage is when gas collection ultimately comes to an end, Paragon RNG will take out the equipment they’ve used and leave behind infrastructure that can be used for a future transfer station should Polk County need it.

Carter and Floyd also pointed out they believe this doesn’t completely bring the project to fruition with their vote. Public Hearings will likely be required to move forward as the RNG project will necessitate the county seeking approval from EPD for construction on the Grady Road site.

The decisions about the landfill come a day after the City of Rockmart invited the public to come out and discuss municipal sludge in the landfill. Local officials are seeking to get support for allowing the sludge generated from processing sewage at wastewater treatment plants in Cedartown and Rockmart to be allowed to be part of the trash pile at Grady Road, instead of seeking out other areas to pay to dispose of it.

County Commissioners voted against a request earlier this year to go to the judge to seek a change in the order for just municipal sludge to be allowed in a 3-2 decision. Commissioners Hubbard and Carter both sought for the change to be allowed.

A forthcoming public hearing session to allow comment about municipal sludge is coming up next week.

Check back for additional video coverage from Monday’s session on sludge and Tuesday’s County Commission vote sometime on Wednesday.