A Gainesville landfill owned by Gov. Nathan Deal’s business partner may have violated its zoning by adding a smelly composting operation this year, county documents show.
The site has been processing food refuse from the Georgia World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome, and nearby neighbors have complained about the stench from the dump for months.
The landfill, owned by Ken Cronan, sits right behind the auto salvage company that Deal and Cronan own together. It obtained the necessary state permits to handle food waste and run a composting operation this year, and records show that some county officials were aware of the expansion plans.
Zoning decisions by the county limit the landfill to construction and demolition debris, according to records supplied to the AJC by the county. In fact, the Hall County Commission in 2007 turned down a request by Cronan to build a solid waste transfer station on the property.
However, County Commission Chairman Tom Oliver said in a letter a year ago to state environmental officials that the proposed composting facility “complies with local zoning and land use ordinances.” Oliver did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment for this article.
Hall County officials declined to say this week whether Cronan’s landfill was violating its zoning but say they are reviewing the operation. Cronan could not be reached for comment. Deal’s spokesman has noted that Deal’s businesses are in a blind trust and that the governor has nothing to do with the day-to-day operations.
County staff “are in the active process of reviewing the site in question to determine exactly what activities are taking place at this location,” spokeswoman Katie Crumley said in an email on Friday. On Tuesday she said the matter was “still under review.”
In a letter a year ago to the state Environmental Protection Division, engineers representing Cronan said the composting operation would accept “sewage sludge and water treatment sludge” and compost that material with yard waste and shredded tires. The engineers told the EPD the plan complied with local zoning ordinances.
At a commission meeting last week, a county code enforcement officer said the food waste was coming from the Georgia World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome.
The GWCC Authority uses a Chicago-based company for its food service, which in turn uses an Alpharetta company to haul its waste. The authority was told the landfill had the proper permits, spokeswoman Jennifer LeMaster said. “We will explore available alternatives … while the county resolves any outstanding permit issues,” she said in a statement.
An engineer employed by Cronan told the AJC that he believes the county’s zoning does permit composting and recycling food waste. The engineer, Bill Hodges, said he based that assumption on Oliver’s letter to the EPD. He also said he was told the landfill is no longer accepting food waste.
“I understand they ceased that after they worked with it and they had some operational issues with odors,” Hodges said.
In 2007, when the county last rezoned the property, Cronan said the waste it would handle “has no odor,” and said the landfill would be for construction and demolition debris, according to county documents.
Cronan received a permit from the EPD in January to begin a composting operation and another in June to accept food waste. But Hall County Commissioner Ashley Bell, who represents the district, says the county never approved those changes.
“Now they know that place should not be operating today,” said Esco Riley, who lives near the landfill and has complained to local officials about the stench coming from it.
The composting operation mixes the food and treated sewage and lays it out in rows, turning it frequently. The resulting compost can later be sold as a soil additive.
EPD Solid Waste Program Director Jeff Cown said the process can produce an odor if done incorrectly.
The World Congress Center and the Dome, both operated by the GWCC Authority Board, are part of a downtown Atlanta “Zero Waste Zone” that promises its waste will not end up in a landfill but will be reused as compost and other materials.
The Zone was unveiled to much fanfare in 2009, and was touted by the Environmental Protection Agency and private nonprofits as the first of its kind in the Southeast.
The GWCC Authority contracts with private companies to handle its food services and waste removal. Levy Restaurants Inc. of Chicago provides all catering and food service for the authority.
Levy, in turn, contracts with an Alpharetta-based company, Closed Loop Organics, to haul off its discarded food. The owner of Closed Loop could not be reached for comment.
Holly Elmore, the founder of the Zero Waste Zone, said the organization “will only support things that fall within all regulations, variances, whatever it is, permits and all Is are dotted and Ts crossed. That is an absolute imperative.”
The issue of Cronan’s zoning came to light at Thursday’s Hall County Commission meeting as the county considered a rezoning request for a neighboring property. That property is owned by Jim Walters, one of Deal’s top supporters, who sought approval for zoning identical to Cronan’s, which would allow him to also operate a landfill.
The county did not grant Walters approval for a composting operation but did vote 3-1 in favor of his plan to expand the existing construction and demolition landfill.
Bell cast the lone no vote.
“It’s unfortunate the County Commission approved this,” he said. “Based on the review, it’s a quality of life issue and health and wealth of the community. Over my objections the commission approved a zoning that could ruin the quality of life in this neighborhood for a generation.”
Lawyers with the environmental law firm GreenLaw said they were considering several approaches to combating the landfills. GreenLaw executive director Stephanie Stuckey Benfield said the zoning problems at Cronan’s landfill underscore worries about Walter’s plans.
“We are concerned that there could be a pattern here of initially getting an expansion of a construction and demolition landfill and then subsequently getting a composting permit and then adding on to that to get the restaurant [waste],” she said.
Benfield, who also is a Democratic state representative, said the documents show “small steps that gradually increase the pollution in the community” without residents knowing it is happening until they smell the results.
More than 50 residents attended Thursday’s meeting and many spoke out “about the awful smell,” Bell said.
Riley, the resident who has complained about the landfill’s smell, said Friday the commission showed it “valued powerful people more than what’s going on in the community.”
“We’re not going to give up,” he said. “We can’t let it go.”
Neighbors say there are already seven or eight landfills in the immediate area. The leader of the Newtown Florist Club has said the new landfill would continue a pattern of “environmental racism” against the African-American community.
Deal and Cronan worked for years to win state approval for the landfill, located alongside a long-closed county dump. The partners bought the property in 2002, with Cronan assuming “full ownership” in 2003, Brain Robinson, the governor’s spokesman, told the AJC in 2010.
But Gainesville Waste & Recycling has the same address as Gainesville Salvage & Disposal. Deal and Cronan also jointly applied for state environmental permits for the landfill in 2007, the AJC reported, with both men signing the application twice.
Deal was listed as an officer in the landfill business as recently as 2007, but in 2008 Cronan amended the records to remove Deal’s name.
While serving in Congress, Deal lobbied Georgia’s attorney general and top environmental officials to approve the landfill.
State regulators objected for several years. But Deal and Cronan eventually succeeded secured a rezoning from Hall County; after Cronan agreed to design changes intended to protect groundwater, the state granted a permit in 2010.
Beginning late last year, Cronan began applying for state permits to expand his landfill, first adding a composting operation and then adding recycling of restaurant waste. This summer, Cronan applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dramatically expand the size of the operation. The Corp’s permission is needed because the landfill comes close to a protected waterway, Allen Creek, which already is on the state’s list of polluted waters.
Neighbors say there are already seven or eight landfills in the immediate area. The leader of the Newtown Florist Club has said the new landfill would continue a pattern of “environmental racism” against the African-American community.
GreenLaw executive director Stephanie Stuckey Benfield said state law limits the number of landfills to no more than three in a two-mile radius. But she said many exemptions allow landfill developers to get around the law.
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