Horner pledges landfill construction by September as opposition revs up
ONEIDA | Knox Horner, the developer who has proposed to build a second landfill and rail transfer station near Bear Creek, said Wednesday afternoon that construction on that project will begin in September.
Horner’s comments came at an inaugural meeting of a coalition of local governments that are joining forces in an attempt to stop the landfill from becoming a reality.
Scott and McCreary counties have both joined the coalition, along with the towns of Oneida, Huntsville and Winfield, and representatives of all five entities were present at Wednesday’s inaugural meeting at the Oneida Municipal Services Building. Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers, McCreary County Judge Executive Jimmie Greene, Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones, Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers and Winfield Mayor Jerry Dotson were all present, along with Scott County Attorney John Beaty, McCreary County Attorney Austin Price and various other representatives.
The coalition — which now has an official name: the Scott County-McCreary County Environmental Coalition — is an idea borne of a meeting of mayors several weeks ago. The governing bodies of the five respective entities have since voted to join the coalition, with the Town of Winfield becoming the most recent to join it when its board of mayor and aldermen met Tuesday afternoon.
Official actions taken at Wednesday’s meeting were to appoint Phillips-Jones as the coalition’s chairperson, Dennis Jeffers as vice-chair, and Oneida Alderman Jeff Tibbals as secretary. The coalition also voted unanimously to enter into a retainer agreement with attorney Lisa Helton of the Nashville law firm Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison. She is the attorney who successfully led the City of Murfreesboro’s fight against an expansion of the Middle Point Landfill earlier this decade.
Helton will be retained at a billable cost of $640 an hour, while two of her associates who will also work on the case will bill at $500 an hour. The costs will be split equally between the five governing bodies. Phillips-Jones will work with Helton on a letter, drafted by McCreary County water manager Steven Whittaker, that the coalition will submit to the TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation informing them of the coalition’s intent to fight against the landfill.
All five mayors in the room stated that they were opposed to the planned landfill, though there were differences in their tone.
Oneida Mayor Phillips-Jones said that she was opposed to a second landfill until TDEC could answer questions she has about monitoring of the existing landfill at Bear Creek, which is owned by Waste Connections LLC. She specifically mentioned a leachate leak that occurred in February 2025, stating that TDEC had not provided appropriate notice of the spill — which resulted in a violation against the landfill.
“I told TDEC there are things happening here that you’re not giving me notice of,” she said. “There is definitely a communication breakdown somewhere, and I don’t know how to remedy that.”
Regarding the existing landfill, Phillips-Jones said, “I have a lot of questions for them on the monitoring of the current landfill.”
Huntsville Mayor Jeffers flatly said that he and his town are opposed to the landfill.
“At this point we’re either all in or all out,” he said. “Huntsville is all in.” At a later point, Jeffers said he was “not sitting at this table to make deals.”
On the other hand, Scott County Mayor Jeffers said part of his job as a watchdog for Scott County’s citizens is to avoid leading the county into a lawsuit that it might be unable to win.
“Am I excited about a secondary landfill?” he asked. “No. There is nobody excited about a secondary landfill. But my job as county mayor is to make sure the citizens are okay and to make sure I avoid a lawsuit that is going to wind up drowning this county and causing more financial heartache for this county than we already have. So if you’re asking what my opinion is, I’m not excited about it. Not one bit. But it is what it is. I try to do the best thing I can by this county to try to avoid bad things happening to the citizens, as well as trying to avoid a lawsuit.”
Horner told the coalition that the annual recertification of the existing landfill permit on a portion of the property his investment group is purchasing was approved by TDEC last week.
TDEC issued a 24-acre landfill permit to Roberta Phase II Inc. in 2010. The property was owned then by Johnny King, who pursued the first landfill at Bear Creek as early in the 1980s. That property is among the acreage being purchased by Horner’s group.
In February 2025, TDEC issued a letter to Roberta Phase II and Horner, stating that a new owner’s intent to build a landfill on the property would be subject to further investigation by TDEC before construction could begin. It’s not clear whether last week’s recertification satisfies TDEC’s requirements for a new owner to construct a landfill on the property; however, Horner seemed confident that there are no roadblocks currently in the path of construction.
Separately, Trans-Rail Waste Services LLC — a corporation affiliated with Horner and his investors — has applied for a transfer station on Poplar Lane, another portion of property being purchased by the group. That project has not yet been permitted by TDEC.
In response to a question from Tibbals, Horner said that his group has not yet pursued additional landfill permits on the property it is purchasing, which is close to 700 acres in total. He said “standard operating procedure” for landfills is to start with 15 to 30 acres, then to permit additional acreage as the landfill progresses, due to the expense involved.
Horner also said that his group has procured an agreement with Safety-Kleen, an environmental waste company, to process leachate produced by the new landfill. As previously reported by the Independent Herald, what to do with the leachate had become a question after the Town of Oneida indicated that it might be unable to take more leachate. The town currently treats much of the leachate produced by the original landfill at Bear Creek, at an average flow of three gallons per minute.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Oneida Water & Wastewater manager Steve Owens said it was unlikely that the Oneida wastewater treatment plant could handle additional leachate from a new landfill.
“We’re already struggling with the other landfill … I doubt we’re going to be able to accept any more,” Owens said.
Horner referenced a letter from the town in January 2025 that he said stated differently. But, he added, “That’s fine; we have an alternative,” which was a reference to Safety-Kleen.
Without specifically saying so, Horner seemed to indicate that his group is prepared to pursue the lawsuit Scott County Mayor Jeffers said earlier in the meeting that needs to be avoided.
“This permit has been issued,” Horner said. “It’s just going through recertification. There was a lawsuit and it was appealed back in 2010 and then the permit was issued. I just want to make sure everybody is aware, we’ve invested a lot of time and several years up here, and a whole lot of money, so understand … we plan on starting construction in September.”
Huntsville Mayor Jeffers questioned whether permitting issues in 2014, 2015 and 2016 would constitute violations that void the original permit.
“Here’s the problem we’re getting into,” Jeffers said. “We’re calling plays here and the opposition is listening. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s obvious that we have a difference of opinion. And I don’t know — we may be throwing money into the wind. But we’re gonna throw it.”
That point of contention — Horner’s presence — was a major one, with a citizen who was present later saying that he should not be allowed to be there. Mayor Phillips-Jones pointed out that public meetings mean any member of the public can show up — in other words, if they’re closed for one, they’re closed for all. However, she also said she intends to discuss with Helton, the attorney being retained by the group, whether the coalition’s meetings fall under the state’s open meetings requirement.
“At some point in time, the public is going to have to let us govern,” Huntsville Mayor Jeffers said. He added: “This coalition was formed as a result of the public’s outcry. So we have heard, loud and clear. To go back and rehash it over and over and over again … we need time to be constructive, not hear the same complaints.”
Phillips-Jones asked Horner if he would consider a new way into the property he intends to build the landfill on. Currently, commercial traffic into the property is using an easement through property owned by Timber Rock Lodge. An easement was granted through that property to reach a house on the property being purchased by Horner’s group.
“It would go a long way with a lot of folks in the room if you all would find an alternate way to access that property,” Phillips-Jones said. “It’s a pretty big imposition on Timber Rock Lodge, which has put a lot of time and money into developing a facility in Scott County. That is one of my significant concerns.”
Horner indicated that he would be “more than happy” to pursue that request.