NASHVILLE | Legislation intended to stop the Roberta Phase II landfill project in Scott County has failed to clear a committee in the Tennessee House of Representatives, effectively stalling the legislative fight to prevent the landfill.
House Bill 2202, which would have designated the Big South Fork River a Class II Pastoral River under Tennessee’s 1960s-era Scenic Rivers Act and added stipulations effectively preventing any future landfills in Scott County, failed to clear the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee by a 7-7 vote.
Voting in favor of the legislation were Rebecca Alexander, R-Jonesborough; Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville; Monty Fritts, R-Kingston; Justin Jones, D-Nashville; Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar; Ron Travis, R-Dayton; and Greg Vital, R-Harrison.
Voting against it were Clay Doggett, R-Pulaski; Rusty Grills, R-Newbern; Greg Martin, R-Chattanooga; Jay Reedy, R-Erin; Tom Stinnett, R-Friendsville; and Chris Todd, R-Jackson.
Two members of the committee — Tandy Darby, R-Greenfield, and Bud Hulsey, R-Kingsport — were present but did not vote.
Tuesday’s action almost certainly kills the legislative effort this calendar year. Bill sponsors have very limited options after a bill fails in a committee, and the legislation cannot be filed again until the new legislative session begins in January 2027.
Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, and Rep. Kelly Keisling, R-Byrdstown, filed the legislation on Feb. 2. It would have classified the Big South Fork River a Class II Pastoral River, and added specific language stating that new landfills are not permitted in a county where two rivers merge to form a pastoral river, which flows through a national river and recreation area before entering a neighboring state. The strict language was written in a way to include only Scott County, and a provision was included to exempt the existing Volunteer Regional Landfill from the legislation.
The legislation breezed through the Senate, passing unanimously without debate.
However, the House was quite a different story. The bill narrowly survived debate in subcommittee, passing by a 5-4 vote. Following that sometimes-contentious debate, it was apparent that its fate in the full committee would likely hinge on a single vote.
Testimony was heard on the bill a week earlier, but the committee abruptly adjourned before a vote was taken. Debate continued Tuesday, with Keisling arguing in favor of his legislation, and representatives both in favor of and against it also speaking out.
Stinnett, a Blount County Republican who sits on the solid waste board in his hometown, argued that the legislation would cause problems “10 to 15 years down the road” when property owners aren’t able to do “what they want to do” with their property because of restrictions included in the bill. He argued that the estimated 24 years remaining at Volunteer Regional Landfill is not a long period of time and suggested that Scott County should be looking towards its options once the existing landfill is full.
“We have counties that don’t have a waste management company and they’re shipping stuff out,” Stinnett said. “I promise you we aren’t taking it in Blount County, even though we have 58 years left (on an existing landfill). We need to make sure we don’t fix it where your community doesn’t have an opportunity to do this.”
Ironically, one of the biggest points of opposition to the proposed landfill has been that Volunteer Regional already accepts waste from outside counties and Roberta Phase II would increase that operation by building a rail transfer station to transport waste into the landfill by train.
Monty Fritts, a Kingston Republican who is seeking his party’s nomination for governor this year, raised that point.
“Perhaps we should give Scott County the same autonomy (as Blount County),” Fritts said, pointing out that Stinnett had just said Blount County would not take trash from outside its community.
Bud Hulsey, a Republican from upper East Tennessee who ultimately did not vote one way or the other, said he wished Scott County had acted proactively to say it does not want more than one landfill in its community.
“Most of the time, city government and county government don’t want the state’s nose in their business,” Hulsey said. “Now we have city government and county government coming to the state and saying we want your nose in our business.”
Hulsey said he had people from Scott County in attendance at the House committee proceedings “follow me into the bathroom” to argue for the bill.
To his point, Scott County Attorney John Beaty has argued that the Jackson Law should have been considered active in 2010, when the TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation issued the Roberta Phase II permit. TDEC, however, opined that it had expired weeks earlier. Jackson Law gives county and municipal governments the authority to approve or deny a proposed landfill within their legal boundaries. Should the coalition of local governments that has formed to oppose the landfill eventually take legal action against the landfill, that appears to be an argument it is prepared to use. Scott County, along with the towns of Oneida, Winfield and Huntsville, have since passed ordinances to adopt the Jackson Law.
Greg Vital, a Harrison Republican, said that Tennessee has a waste problem but that it also has a responsibility to its citizens.
“We have a responsibility to the people who live in that county who have property rights also,” Vital said. He pointed out that Scott Countians had witnessed the decline of the timber-cutting and coal-mining industries and had realized the land here is valuable to the tourism and recreation industries.
Chris Todd and Rusty Grills did not speak during Tuesday’s session, but previously argued in subcommittee that the legislation would subject the state to a lawsuit that it cannot win.
There was no testimony at Tuesday’s session. During previous sessions, testimony was heard from Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers, Cumberland Clear’s Jennifer Shockley, Roberta Phase II developer Knox Horner, and representatives of TDEC.
Horner and his investors have purchased the 24-acre Roberta Phase II permit that was issued by TDEC in 2010 and have an option to purchase the 700 acres of property that includes the 24 acres in question. Before the permit can be reactivated, however, Horner’s company must satisfy a number of TDEC requirements, including evidence for how it plans to adequately alter streams and wetlands on the property that would be impacted by the landfill.
Through his company, Trans Rail Waste Services, Horner has also applied for a rail transfer station along the Norfolk-Southern Railroad on the northeast corner of the property, which is located just off Poplar Lane.
TDEC has not acted on either of those applications.
Meanwhile, property owners Ralph and Michelle Trieschmann, who own Timber Rock Lodge adjacent to the Roberta Phase II property, have filed a lawsuit in state court in Nashville, arguing that the permit was issued illegally in 2010. Cumberland Clear, the citizen-led non-profit that was organized to oppose the landfill, is represented by the same legal counsel as the Trieschmanns and has said it will file a lawsuit of its own. The coalition of local governments — which includes Scott County and each of its three municipalities, along with McCreary County — has not indicated whether it intends to file a lawsuit but has retained the Middle Tennessee attorney who successfully led a fight against an expansion of the Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro.