(AP) — Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality has denied a permit request that would have placed a third landfill inside a county where the project faces opposition.
The permit board voted 5-2 on Tuesday against NCL Waste’s request to establish a new trash dumping site in Madison County. If this latest landfill had been approved, Madison County would have had the most landfills of any county in Mississippi, news outlets reported. The board said it won’t consider any permits for the project until county supervisors decide whether they need another landfill in an updated needs assessment. The board emphasized that NCL Waste’s proposal isn’t dead yet, WAPT-TV said.
Still, Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee said “it was a wise decision” by the board, news outlets reported. The proposed site was in his city.
Community members and city officials have voiced opposition to the 89-acre (36-hectare) site for months. About 100 of those opponents were present at the meeting in Jackson, wearing “No More Dumps” stickers, The Clarion Ledger reported. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba and former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott have also said they disapproved of the proposal, news outlets reported.
NCL Waste said its Community Benefit Agreement would have offered environmental, economic and educational benefits to those closest to the site.