Stephens C&D Landfill Closer to Official Closure

Stephens County’s construction and demolition landfill is one step closer to complete closure.

Tuesday, county commissioners unanimously voted to sign the certificate of substantial completion for the landfill to send it off to the state’s Environmental Protection Division.

County Administrator Phyllis Ayers said this is a major step forward in the process of closing that landfill once and for all.

“The engineering firm assisting us with this will send the forms to EPD and we will be looking for the certification that the C & D landfill is closed from EPD,” said Ayers.

Once the EPD signs off on the closure of the construction and demolition part of the landfill, located off of Highway 145 in Stephens County, it will move into post-closure monitoring for a number of years.

The county landfill has not accepted construction and demolition waste since July 2010.

Ayers said the county is happy that they have finally gotten to this point.

“We are glad to see this move forward,” said Ayers.

Contractors working on the landfill closure encountered multiple problems throughout the closure process.

The initial contract called for the final phase of the landfill closure to be done in 180 days.

Instead, it took more than two years.

Officials say among the things that caused delays in the final phase of the construction and demolition landfill closure in Stephens County were rain and not having enough dirt to cap off the landfill.