Commission hears request to hold public hearing on Landfill

‘In 2013, I think the citizens made it clear with their response’- Commissioner Zach Marlow

By Charlotte Underwood

JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- At Monday’s Commission workshop, Bill Manfull addressed commissioners, saying he was applying to put a landfill in the county “near” the White Oak area and requesting the county hold a public hearing on it so he could “educate the public about the benefits.”

Manfull told Commissioners he spoke with the planning board several weeks ago and was told that the “county doesn’t want a landfill” after that meeting.

“So, I’m coming back to you to formally request to have a public hearing on it through the Jackson Law and do it step by step,” Manfull said.

He said Scott County and Anderson County’s landfills were both controlled by publicly traded companies and that there was “no money that goes back into the community” and that the program he was trying to bring forward to Campbell County have a hosting fee for the community to put money back in.

“The life of the landfill, doing it like this, would bring in tens of millions of dollars; if you look at your budget and you’re sending it to Scott County now, you don’t realize, it’s gone and it’s going into publicly traded companies where the profits are going to shareholders,” Manfull said.

He said if it was approved, it would be “a local operation on a 2000-acre site with about 300 acres being impacted by the landfill.” The property is about three miles from White Oak in an area “down in a bowl” that was previously mined. The area was mined from the 1920s through the 1980s.

According to former county commissioner Ralph Davis, who attended the meeting and addressed commissioners about the landfill, the area is “in Morley” and right by a ‘river that runs into the Clear Fork River, that runs in through the Cumberland River and runs into the Ohio River.

Davis asked Manfull if he had filed for a permit through the state for the property.

Manfull said he had not, that he had to get local approval first and the next step was with the state.

Davis said he had to get a permit from the state and then come back to the county. Davis said he had to have an ariel view, and everything done by architects and drawn up to present to the commission and at the public hearing. Davis also asked Manfull if he knew how much it would cost per acre to acquire an insurance bond the property.

“The state of Tennessee told me it would cost you a half a million dollars per acre to bond a landfill, are you prepared to pay that?”

Manfull said he was.  Davis asked if there would be hazardous material allowed at the landfill and Manfull said it would be household garbage only.

“We just want to take it out to the public so the public can understand what we are trying to do … let us have a chance to talk, to explain to the public, to educate the public and to educate you all,” Manfull said.

He said the hosting fee could be as little as $2 a ton and could be as much as $7 a ton.

“So, you are asking this body to hold a public hearing,” Commission Chairman Johnny Bruce confirmed.

“Yes, I would like to have a public hearing to take a vote on a landfill, and we have to do it through the Jackson Law, because you guys adopted the Jackson Law” Manfull said, explaining that he was looking to get approval at the county level, so he could then take it to the state level.

Bruce said he would get with the county mayor about setting up a public hearing.

Commissioner Zach Marlow asked to speak.

“You know 12 years ago when the county passed the Jackson Law, I think the citizens of that area made it very clear then with their response, and I am going to leave it at that,” Marlow said. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-10/16/2025-6AM)