Trash transfer station proposed for Poplar Lane area in Winfield
Newly-registered company files application for permit with TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation
WINFIELD | Two weeks after abandoning preliminary plans for a rail transfer station at the former Hartco flooring plant in downtown Oneida, it appears a Chattanooga-area developer planning a landfill at Bear Creek has found an alternative location in Winfield.
A limited liability company, Trans-Rail Waste Services, has applied for a transfer station on Poplar Lane in Winfield, which would serve as a facility for transferring garbage from railroad cars to trucks for final transport into a landfill that developer Knox Horner — president and CEO of Capiche LLC — is planning at Bear Creek.
Horner is in the process of purchasing approximately 700 acres of property adjacent to the existing Volunteer Regional Landfill.
According to records from the TN Dept. of Environment and Conservation, a solid waste disposal permit has been applied for by Trans-Rail Waste Services, LLC and its agent, Jim Eyre, and is pending.
Trans-Rail Waste Services is a brand-new company, only registered as a business entity with the Tennessee Secretary of State on Friday, May 30. According to state records, its principal address is located in Atlanta, Ga. The company’s registration agent is Hugh F. Sharber, a corporate attorney with the firm Miller & Martin in Chattanooga.
As proposed, the transfer station would be located near the site of the former coal tipple at Winfield, on the west side of the Norfolk-Southern Railroad just off Poplar Lane. Currently, there’s a side rail at that location on the east side of the tracks; however, Trans-Rail Waste Services is proposing a new side rail on the west side of the tracks to serve the facility.
According to Scott County property records, the land the transfer station would be built on is a 78-acre tract currently owned by Bearcat Properties Inc.
The Bearcat firm owns most of the 700 acres in question in the Bear Creek area, and the site planned for the transfer station is located on the eastern edge of that property. Bearcat took ownership of the properties in February 2020, some 16 months after the previous owner — Roberta Landfill Phase II Inc. — was foreclosed on. Founded in 2019, its registered agent is Victoria b. Tillman, a Knoxville attorney with the firm McKinney & Tillman.
Collectively, the former Roberta Landfill property extends from Bear Creek Road in Oneida, adjacent to the existing Volunteer Regional Landfill that was originally part of the property and is now owned by Waste Connections, to north of Poplar Lane in Winfield. A portion of the property — a 99.5-acre tract currently under contract for sale, according to its current owner — borders U.S. Highway 27 just north of Timber Rock Lodge.
A small portion of the property — less than 30 acres — was permitted as a Class I landfill by TDEC in July 2010, just weeks after Scott County’s opt-in of the Jackson Law expired. Bearcat filed a petition against TDEC in September 2020 to force TDEC to reclassify the landfill permit from Roberta to Bearcat. Earlier this year, TDEC submitted a letter stating that because construction of the landfill had not begun within one year of the permit issuance in July 2010, it would have to be re-certified by the new owner.
Horner, of Cleveland, Tenn., had been doing his due diligence in Scott County for several months before news of the landfill exploded into the public eye in May with indications that he was eyeing the former Hartco site in downtown Oneida as the location of a transfer station to move trash bound for the planned landfill from rail cars to trucks.
One day after an outcry of public concern at a meeting of Scott County Commission on May 19, Horner said he was reconsidering his plans for the Hartco location and would consider other options. Subsequently, Oneida-based Brewco — which has a lease-purchase agreement on the Hartco property with the Industrial Development Board of Scott County, said it had not received a formal offer from Horner and had no interest in pursuing an agreement for a transfer station on the property. Likewise, IDB chairman Greg Jeffers said the IDB had not been approached with a proposal from Horner.
Horner told the Independent Herald at the time that a transfer station would be considered a temporary solution until a more expensive rail spur into the landfill could be constructed. He estimated that a rail spur could cost as much as $15 million to construct.
At a special meeting earlier this week, Scott County Commission voted unanimously to renew its opt-in to the Jackson Law, a state statute dating to 1989 that gives county and municipal governments the authority to deny permits to privately-owned landfills within their jurisdictions.
However, Scott County originally opted into the Jackson Law in 1989, and attempted to use it as a basis for rejecting the original permit for what is now the Volunteer Regional Landfill. A court ruled against Scott County in 1992, and the county’s attorney, John Beaty, has opined that Scott County would be in violation of the court order if it attempts to deny further landfill permits on the same group of properties.
There have been calls for County Commission to use zoning powers in an attempt to deny the construction of a trash transfer station.
However, Scott County does not currently have zoning regulations, and implementing such regulations is a complicated process. County Commission would first be required to implement what is known as the County Powers Act, a state statute adopted in 2002 that allows counties to reserve for themselves certain powers ordinarily reserved for cities that are governed by a board of mayor and aldermen. To do so, County Commission would have to pass the County Powers Act by a two-thirds majority vote following the appropriate public hearings and review process. After that, the county would have to establish zoning ordinances.
It is not clear that Scott County could attempt to retroactively apply zoning regulations against a business that has already applied for permits.
The Town of Oneida using zoning powers to stop the proposed transfer station is a moot point; the proposed site is not located within the Oneida municipal limits. It does, however, appear to fall within the Winfield municipal limits.
In a May 22 letter to the IH, Horner pledged to create at least 25 jobs, pay more than $2 million annually in host fees that would be split by Scott County and Oneida, build a recycling center, and implement recycling initiatives in local schools.
Scott County currently receives 85 cents per ton of trash in host fees from Waste Connections for the existing landfill, as does Oneida, amounting to around $300,000 annually for each government. At the May 19 meeting, Horner pledged $1.20 per ton in host fees to Scott County.
According to the University of Tennessee’s County Technical Advisory Service (CTAS), landfill host fees — which are designed to encourage regional use of landfills and incinerators — can be used for “solid waste management purposes or to offset costs resulting from hosting the facility,” ambiguous language that allows creative county administrators to use those revenues to fund various areas of government.