The Polk County Commission split on a vote on Tuesday evening, declining a request put forward for the Grady Road Landfill to take the byproduct of wastewater treatment the cities of Cedartown and Rockmart create on a daily basis, and costing taxpayers thousands to dispose of elsewhere.

Commissioners denied the motion 3-2 with Commissioners Gary Martin, Linda Liles and Chuck Thaxton going against, and Commissioners Ray Carter and Jordan Hubbard voting for the measure as city officials from Cedartown and Rockmart watched the argument play out, and later huddled together after the regular session was over.

The request came on the agenda with some clarification needed for the public, as it only read as putting forth an amendment to Judge Adele Grubbs order determining operations at the landfill made at the conclusion of a lawsuit between the county and operators GFL Environmental.

An agreement put forth on the agenda drawn up by the county and GFL would allow ONLY the municipal sludge – which is treated to remove any previous contaminants and has no smell, as displayed by the buckets of the sludge brought into the commission meeting room on Tuesday evening – to go into the landfill if the Commission agreed to put it before Judge Grubbs for her final approval.

That amendment was voted down as at least Commissioner Liles said she wasn’t fully informed about what was coming before the board on Tuesday evening.

“I did not find out about this until Thursday when Jaime sent us the packets,” Liles said. “It hasn’t been very transparent, and I think the citizens have a right to understand what we are voting on.”

She said her major issue dates back to when commissioners heard from citizens in the past about odor issues for those who live around the Grady Road Landfill, and so she made her position clear from the get-go. She was an immediate no vote for any changes to the landfill.

The problem is caused by the following from the landfill agreement: no sludge of any kind is allowed to be dumped into the landfill, municipal sludge included. This came about after years of industrial and commercial sludges being mixed into the Grady Road facilities along with municipal sludge for years, causing odor problems and clogging up gas extraction systems.

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Commission Chair Hal Floyd pointed out when the discussion opened on the matter during the work session that problem, along with his belief that the need for further transparency on the issue needs an opportunity for the public – especially those who testified about problems on behalf of the county during the lawsuit – to weigh in on the issues along with officials from the cities.

He also apologize for the wording of the request on the agenda, which didn’t fully explain what the commission was seeking to vote on during the meeting.

“I knew that Item 9 had to do with sludge, but if you came in here and read the agenda, you wouldn’t know that,” he admitted. “…That way would have been a lot more transparent for everyone to know what we are voting on.”

He also noted the request was originally raised months ago by Commissioner Hubbard, seeking to help the cities in a yearslong request to bring municipal sludge back.

“I indicated to him at that time that I had no problems with discussing or talking about anything, but the thing I want more than anything is to be totally transparent about what happened,” he said.

Floyd’s ultimate issue with the sludge – and the landfill as a whole – is that when it closes in the coming years (six to twelve years, depending on annual trash intake) the county will be on the hook not just for closure costs, but the costs of where trash will go when the facility is closed from county residents. He said the cities would only have a temporary fix for their sludge issue, and should seek a permanent solution.

“We had asked citizens to come and speak on our behalf to speak on the odor issues we were having,” he said. “As I thought about us voting on such a major item, there should be total transparency, and by that I mean and I mentioned to Jordan that I would like to have a hearing… that was my desire. I wanted again to be transparent.”

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Floyd said he had asked Hubbard to consider withdrawing the item from the agenda until such time as a hearing with everyone concerned could discuss what’s going on.

Hubbard noted that the cities – their taxpayers footing the bill who are also county residents and taxpayers – were paying at least $250,000 a year to dispose of municipal sludge in other area landfills while Polk County’s was supposed to be taking it. This is to the tune of 50 tons of sludge from the Cedartown plant, and 70 tons from Rockmart’s facility on a monthly basis that has to be disposed of somewhere.

He also took issue with the idea the request wasn’t “transparent” as Liles said, since it has been a problem facing the cities and county since 2019 when the lawsuit came to a conclusion with Judge Grubb’s order.

“Look, we’re talking transparency a lot. Just a reminder: I asked all of you if we could have a conversation in regards to sludge, because I basically investigated to see where we are on this (issue),” Hubbard said. “I said limited scope, which is referring to municipality waste of Polk County, because city citizens are also county citizens.”

“I agree. Look, sludge is a terrible thing. But when people hear sludge, the first thing they think of is an industry like GEO. GEO sludge was bad, right? Industry sludge that we had, it’s that way. Grease pits dumping inside that landfill, that’s bad. But municipal sludge is treated, right? So good sludge in a landfill is good for the life of the landfill. I’m not going up against just to do it, I think it is the right thing because in 2019, the cities were left holding and “good luck” and we aren’t taking your sludge anymore. And they are budgeting over $250,000 a year to manage sludge. City taxpayers are county taxpayers, yet people complain about trash coming into our community from out of our community, and we won’t take sludge from our own citizens within their landfill.”

He doesn’t want anyone else’s sludge, just for the municipalities. It also makes sense considering the cities take up much of the infrastructure needs for economic development, recreation, public safety like fire protection, and other areas.

Hubbard did also note the buckets at the front of the Commission Meeting Room next to the door. Both were open and contained the sludge the municipalities wanted to put into the landfill. No one had complained about the smell in the meeting room during the session, he pointed out.

He was joined by Commissioner Ray Carter in support of the request, who noted that conditions change and that if the county were going to make the change, it should do it now. It continues to be a big problem.

“Every time I walk into one of the cities, sludge is brought up,” he said.

Carter also noted operations by GFL will be opening up previously closed portions of the landfill over the next year and a half to two years and bring back much of the odor issues that were previously worse.

“They are authorized to use the space,” he reminded the commission and audience in attendance for the meeting. “There’s nothing that we or they can do about it (the odor.)”

Carter also noted the cities have paid long enough for the cost of having to dispose of sludge as he also went into a lengthy explanation of the way the sludge impacts the system in the past versus how it works now.

“GFL has done a good job of really restoring the process out there, and taking the gas off and making sure its burning off,” Carter said.

Commissioner Gary Martin decided he was against any changes to the landfill, as he had been in the past.

Commissioner Chuck Thaxton – who was the deciding vote – questioned whether the change could be made to allow for municipal sludge now, and then if need be change it back to no sludge in the future. County Attorney Brad McFall said that scenario was unlikely to be considered by Judge Grubbs, since she would then have to change the order twice.

This isn’t the first change sought since the county and GFL’s differences were initially settled with the order in 2019, and then to settle matters fully in 2021.

Back in October 2022, Commissioners voted against a plan to shift the landfill from vertical expansion to horizontal to finish out the remaining space, which would have used an area at the facility used for dirt storage.