The Morgan County's current SWMP has left the county vulnerable to landfill developers desperately seeking additional property since landfill capacity across the southeast is beginning to decline.  As currently written, the SWMP has major implications for all of Morgan County:

• The SWMP has no restriction on the number of Municipal Solid Waste Landfills that can be placed throughout the County.
• The SWMP is inconsistent with the County Zoning Ordinance for landfills in that there are no dimensional restrictions, such as height limitations to protect views in the County.
• The SWMP is silent on whether out-of-county waste should be accepted and has no restriction on accepting out-of-state waste or quantity of waste received.

The purpose of the Solid Waste Management Program is to ensure solid waste is managed in such a way that protects both public health and the environment. Reducing the amount of solid waste generated remains the program's primary goal. With landfill capacity across the southeast beginning to decline, the current SWMP has and will attract landfill developers to all corners of Morgan County.  Because the SWMP is so liberally-written, in certain situations the County may have little choice but to issue consent that the proposed landfill is consistent with local planning standards and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division would issue a permit for a landfill in Morgan County. 

The current County Zoning ordinance limits the height of landfill cells to 60ft from the original grade (Ordinance 15.14.4). This provision, among others, was adopted in response to a landfill proposed previously in the Apalachee Community.  This height requirement ensures that visual aesthetics and view sheds are preserved and that any landfills that are permitted in appropriate areas blend into the topography.  Without amending the SWMP to incorporate the dimension requirements, for instance, a simple but harmful variance to the Zoning Ordinance can be approved as part of the rezoning process with little public input.  The same protections in the Zoning Ordinance that were implemented to protect the Apalachee Community should be applied equally to all parts of the County through the SWMP.

While we firmly believe Morgan County should continue to utilize landfill space in less valuable, more rural areas of the state, it is imperative the dimensional requirements, such as the cell height limitations, be placed in the SWMP in the event a landfill were to be permitted in Morgan County.  Such restrictions would be more than adequate considering Morgan County only forecasts no greater than 24,551 tons per year would be generated by its residents by 2013.  While it is true that the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) was developed with the intent of enticing  a large manufacturing facility not a solid waste landfill which would detract from economic development in the area.

Moreover, this proposed landfill is bordered by  Indian Creek - a protected sub wetland, as detailed in the Comprehensive Plan (Section 3.3) Wetland which is part of the  Big Indian Creek watershed as detailed in the Comprehensive Plan (Section 3.1)- which is a drinking water source for neighbors to the south in the City of Eatonton , Putnam County.  Even more troubling, this site also sits adjacent to the Norfolk Southern rail line.  Absent a change to the SWMP, rail access would allow waste to be brought in from not only outside Morgan County, but from states to the north that have little geography available for new landfills (such as South Carolina). 

Without taking action to correct the SWMP, Morgan County is vulnerable to having to act on zoning requests that subject Morgan County citizens to unplanned landfills in undesired location with undesired consequences.