Judge, Commissioners, and members of the public — thank you
for the opportunity to speak.
Pike County is being asked to accept a 1,500‑acre regional
mega‑landfill on unstable former mine land in Myra. This is not a routine trash
contract. It is a 50‑year decision that will shape our health, our roads, our
property values, and our economic future long after every person in this room
is gone. Before any irreversible commitments are made, the people of Pike
County deserve full transparency, independent review, and a meaningful voice in
the process.
Over the past weeks, residents from every corner of the
county have signed the petition opposing this project. Their concerns are
consistent and serious: the risk of water contamination and leachate spills,
methane emissions and odor, heavy‑truck traffic on Highway 610 West, declining
property values, and the very real possibility that Pike County becomes a
destination for out‑of‑state waste. The petition calls for a pause on the
project, an independent environmental and geotechnical review, and public hearings
before any final approval. The message is unmistakable: our people want growth
— not garbage.
There are also major public‑safety gaps that cannot be
ignored. A landfill of this scale brings risks that include leachate spills
from tanker trucks, methane‑related fires or explosions, slope failures on
steep reclaimed mine land, hazardous materials mixed into loads, and increased
traffic accidents involving heavy waste trucks. Yet the volunteer fire
departments closest to the site do not have the hazmat equipment required to
respond safely. They need suits, respirators, spill‑containment kits, gas‑detection
tools, specialized training, and additional funding to handle the increased
call volume. The Host Community Agreement does not guarantee any of this.
Without proper equipment, both first responders and residents are put at risk.
If the county accepts a mega‑landfill, it must also secure hazmat‑level
readiness for every department in the impact zone.
There is also an economic cost that has not been fully
acknowledged. By shifting Pike County’s waste to a private operator, the
agreement reduces operations at the current county landfill. That means fewer
county employees, potential layoffs, and the loss of stable public‑sector jobs
with benefits. In exchange, we get temporary construction jobs and a smaller
number of private‑sector positions — with no guarantee of local hiring. In
plain terms: the county trades good public jobs for uncertain private ones.
Another issue is the 5% rule buried in the contract. It
states that if new safety or environmental protections increase the operator’s
costs by just five percent, the company can claim an “undue burden.” That
clause effectively limits the Fiscal Court’s ability to strengthen protections
in the future. It hands long‑term leverage to the operator and weakens local
control for decades.
And we must be honest about the true driver of this project:
out‑of‑county waste. A landfill this large cannot survive on Pike County’s
trash alone. The agreement’s definition of “Out‑of‑County Waste” makes clear
that the operator intends to import waste from other counties, other states,
and potentially the entire region. That transforms Pike County into a regional
dumping hub — with all the traffic, odor, and environmental risk that comes
with it.
So what does the community want instead? Transparent
decision‑making. Independent environmental review. Investment in hazmat
readiness. Protection of local jobs. And economic development that builds Pike
County’s future rather than buries it.
We are not anti‑development. We are anti‑bad‑development.
Pike County deserves solutions that strengthen our economy, protect our health,
and respect our people.
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