Landfill fight may be over for Conecuh
Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 19, 2013
A long-running legal fight over a proposed massive landfill in Conecuh County may finally be over.
After a judge ruled last month in favor of opponents of the Conecuh Woods project, officials behind the landfill apparently declined to file an appeal by the deadline of midnight Sept. 18, according to Repton Mayor Terri Carter. The Town of Repton filed a lawsuit to fight the landfill — which would have been located just a few miles from the town — almost immediately after Conecuh County commissioners approved the landfill application in April 2011.
In the two years since the lawsuit was filed, four new county commissioners were elected, and the state Legislature passed a moratorium on new large landfills until the state could establish new rules to regulate and approve them.
Opponents of the landfill — which would have accepted garbage from across the country, according to the application filed by Conecuh Woods — said it was an unnecessary facility that would have harmed property values as well as the environment. Escambia County, Brewton, Atmore, Orange Beach and Poarch officials joined the lawsuit, in large part because of concern over the proposed landfill’s possible effects on waterways that flow into their areas.
–Kerry Bean