Downtown trash transfer station no longer a possibility, developer says

Knox Horner, the developer planning a new Class I landfill in Oneida, says he reconsidered a rail-to-truck transfer station at the former Hartco flooring site following Monday's public comments

The former Hartco flooring plant in downtown Oneida had been considered for a trash transfer station, but developer Knox Horner says he has reconsidered. (Photo: Abandoned.net)

ONEIDA | A rail-to-truck trash transfer station at the former Hartco property in downtown Oneida will not be happening, the developer pushing the project said Tuesday morning.

Knox Horner, the Chattanooga-area landfill developer who is working towards a new Class I landfill in Oneida, said voices were heard when Scott County residents turned out en masse Monday evening to protest both the landfill and the transfer station.

Horner is planning to purchase approximately 700 acres of land adjacent to the existing Volunteer Regional Landfill at Bear Creek. As previously reported, he is pursuing an agreement with Norfolk-Southern to build a rail spur into the property, and had also been exploring the possibility of a transfer station at the former Hartco flooring plant in downtown Oneida to move the trash from rail to road before final transport to the landfill.

At Monday’s meeting, Horner said the transfer station would be temporary while the permanent rail spur was being built.

However, on Tuesday morning he said he was reconsidering.

“We appreciate the comments from the public last night and we want to say you were heard,” he said.

Horner said Monday that a $25 million investment is planned to make the landfill a reality, of which $15 million would involve the landfill and $10 million would be used to build the rail spur. He said the thought process behind the transfer station was to make the initial $15 million investment and get a cash flow going before making the further investment for the rail spur.

“It’s something that makes good corporate sense but not necessarily good political sense,” he said Tuesday morning, after saying that he had reconsidered the transfer station.

As revealed at Monday’s County Commission meeting, there appears to be little local government officials could do to prevent a new landfill from being licensed at Bear Creek, dating back to a 1986 decision by County Commission and a subsequent court ruling in 1992.

Horner will be pressing forward with plans to license the landfill, which he said Monday would be a Class I landfill. In Tennessee, Class I landfills are facilities that accept household waste and other non-hazardous materials. However, it appears that trucking trash from within eyesight of Oneida’s revitalized South Main Street district through the heart of town — the source of much of the consternation at Monday’s meeting — is off the table.

“We don’t want to be just a good corporate partner. We want to be a part of the community,” Horner said. “As I said last night, I’m going to be living here. This will be my home, too. We don’t want to do anything to harm this community.”