County discusses prices for waste removal to residents

The Marshall County Board of Supervisors is in negotiations with Waste Connections to formulate an agreement to provide household solid waste and brush removal to residents who live on the county’s solid waste collection routes. The county plans to provide the pickup and disposal free to residents in lieu of raising the mill rate.

Waste Connections is working with the county to expand the Quad County Landfill by 43 acres to add 30 more years of life to the site. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality must approve the transaction before the company can expand the site.

Representatives for Waste Connections were in the boardroom Sept. 19 to discuss the agreement to serve customers on existing routes not covered by the municipalities.

Letters of credit to cover asphalt and erosion at Twin Lakes Subdivision Phase 2 were approved, according to zoning administrator Ken Jones.

An asphalt bond set at $97,341 would pay for any damages to subdivision roads, and an erosion bond was set at $11,845 by county engineer Larry Britt.

The board approved rezoning 12.5 acres north of Lee Creek Road Subdivision from C-1 to R-3. The subdivision is located across Lee Creek Road and directly across the street from Cayce Fire Department, a property once owned by the Armour family.

The subdivision will be high density and the same builders developing that subdivision is also the builder for the Twin Lakes Subdivision owned by John Porter.

Jones said Lee Creek Road subdivision will have two entrances, one coming out Cayce Road and the other coming out Lee Creek Road. Lot sizes are smaller, Jones said.

The board approved rezoning two parcels of property from Residential Estates to Industrial-1. The tracts are 7.17 acres and 12.9 acres located on Lenderman Road North.

The responsibility for cleaning up an old sewer lagoon located in an old mobile home park near Highway 72 was discussed. The board of supervisors is asking the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to step in to resolve the raw sewage problem, which was discovered when a vehicle operator may have run over a sewer pipe serving the community.

Board attorney Amanda Whaley Smith said there is no record the lagoon was ever permitted.

It is not known if a pipe was broken, causing the sewage to back up into houses or if the ground was just saturated.

District 3 supervisor Keith Taylor said the sewer pipes were not stopped up, but when a piece of equipment broke a sewer line, sewage began backing up into houses. About 80 houses are on the aging system, he said. He estimated it would take between $300,000 to $400,000 to hook homes to the existing sewer system recently built to serve the industrial park.

“Marshall County sewer is right behind it,” Taylor said. “We know about it. Those people live there and it’s not their fault.”

Jones said the state told him about two years ago not to permit anything further unless lots were put on the sewer system.

“We know about it and if we don’t do something about it, somewhere its coming out. Raw sewage is going on the ground,” Taylor said.

Smith said the situation must be addressed for health and safety reasons. MDEQ could come out and take samples as they did in 2017.

“They will say you got zoning,” said District 5 supervisor Ronnie Joe Bennett. “They are not going to take any fault on it. They are going to throw it back on us.”

Taylor said the only thing needed is a lift station to pump the sewage to the county sewer system.

“It’s absolutely terrible,” Jones said, explaining that the problem took place when a lot was being cleared and a line burst.

Taylor asked the board to send a resolution to the local delegation and ask legislators to ask MDEQ to address the problem.

“It’s a big ole swamp area down Cayce Road,” Taylor said.

“Sometimes you see it all way up to 72 when the water gets up,” Jones said.