Harrison Cook, a father of three, told supervisors he wanted to leave something behind for his children and keep his wife proud of his waste management business. 

“I’m willing to invest to where they have a brighter future,” Cook said. “Just having this facility gives us so many more options in this county that we never had.” 

Owners of JWC Environmental, including Cook, recently purchased a construction and demolition landfill at 1400 Willow Lake Road, east of Marion, and discussed expanding their operations to include a recycling facility and solid waste transfer facility to the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors Thursday.

Before the company can take its first steps in applying for permits with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, supervisors must amend their 20-year solid waste plan to allow for the construction of a transfer facility.

“It’s still kind of in its infancy; we’re figuring it out,” Cooper Huff, the vice presidents of sales and operations for JWC Environmental, said. “Getting the board of supervisors to amend their waste plane to allow for a transfer station is the first step. The next step is DEQ.”

The facility would allow local waste to be transferred to Butler, Alabama, one of the largest landfills in the Southeast at 700 acres. Cardboard, newspapers and other recyclable products would be resold for a profit. 

“This solid waste would never hit the soil in Lauderdale County,” Cook said. “It’d be all sealed.”

Huff said that the facility would have a concrete floor and would rarely hold waste for more than a day.

“It’s going to be in and out,” Huff said. 

Cook said he wanted to reduce waste in Lauderdale County and promote recycling. Cook said they hoped to open by 2020. 

Wayman Newell, the representative for District 2, said that a potential contract would have to include a clause for road maintenance. Cook assured supervisors the company would be responsible for maintaining the stretch of road between Highway 45 and the facility on Willow Lake Road, if necessary. 

Chris Lafferty, the county administrator, said that the county would have to review their contract with Waste Management, which charges $22.50 per ton.

NAS Meridian Concerns

Jim Copeland, the community planning liaison officer for the Naval Air Station in Meridian, voiced a concern about birds being attracted to the area. 

“They’re attracted to the odor,” Copeland said. “We can avoid existing landfills but if you add another… you’re just adding complexities that don’t need to be there.”

Copeland said bird accidents are a major concern for pilots because they can break windows and injure pilots, especially for inexperienced student pilots. 

With Waste Management’s Pine Ridge Sanitary Landfill, a municipal solid waste landfill at 520 Murphy Road, pilots have learned to alter their takeoff path from the southern runway to avoid the birds hovering over the landfill.

If the proposed transfer station came to the location on Willow Lake Road, Copeland wondered if that would impact flights from the same runway.

“If you hit a bird in a single-engine aircraft and it gets stuck, you’re going down,” Copeland said. “It it hits any part of the plane it’s going to damage it.”

Cook, in the meeting, said that with the sealed facility birds shouldn’t be attracted but Copeland said biologists with the Navy, stationed at the base in Meridian, could analyze the issue and determine its risk.

“It’s something that Lauderdale County deserves and needs. Being able to get the garbage out of Lauderdale County is a huge thing,” Huff said. “We won’t have to worry about ever building a landfill in Lauderdale County again.”