8-year delay in Lamar County landfill project prompts dueling lawsuits. What we know
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- Eight-year delay in Lamar landfill project prompts lawsuits from all parties.
- County commissioners seek control, citing lack of transparency and stalled work.
- Court appoints Special Master to review finances and progress of waste facility.
Lawsuits filed in Macon federal court give a glimpse at a dispute over a multimillion-dollar waste plant that has been delayed eight years, causing Lamar County government to seek major change in the project.
And the operators of the project are trying to push back on efforts from the government.
Owners of the Cedar Grove Landfill — operating under the name Cedar Grove Landfill, LLC — have sued Lamar County commissioners Jason Lovett, Ashley Gilles, Truman Boyles and Jarrod Fletcher and accused them of tortious interference with a contract.
The lawsuit, filed May 20, says the commissioners tried to conduct unrestricted inspections of the area that weren’t permitted in a contract between the two sides.
In a legal reply, the commissioners said they want to do the unrestricted inspections because the Solid Waste Authority has been delaying its state-of-the-art project that would convert solid waste into energy for eight years, court records show.
The Solid Waste Authority received a $27.5 million loan in 2014 from the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority for the waste-to-energy project. Then, the Solid Waste Authority passed the landfill’s ownership to Cedar Grove in July 2021. They determined that it should be operated by “a private entity with the necessary financial resources ... experience and expertise in solid waste management and operation of solid waste disposal facilities,” according to the lawsuit.
The Solid Waste Authority also entered into a contract with Engineered Liquid Solutions, since that company owns the thermal conversion technology that would be used in the waste-to-energy project and the facility where the group would evaporate contaminated water, referred to as leachate.
Commissioners wanted unrestricted access
The commissioners for Lamar County allegedly “intended to seize control of the Solid Waste Authority, the (waste-to-energy) facility and process, and the leachate evaporation facility and process,” which violates the conditions of Cedar Grove’s contract, Cedar Grove officials said in their lawsuit.
Cedar Grove alleged that the commissioners established a plan to take the assets of the landfill starting Jan. 9, when they requested to change how Solid Waste Authority Board Members would be appointed “in order to ‘stack’ the membership of that Board with persons controlled by the Defendant Commissioners, and to seek to prevent further meetings of the Solid Waste Authority Board to carry out further authorized actions of the the Solid Waste Authority contemplated in the Solid Waste Authority’s contractual agreements with Plaintiff and ELS,” according to the lawsuit.
The Lamar County commissioners allegedly directed their legal team to request a judge from the Towaliga Judicial Circuit to allow them to conduct unrestricted inspections of the Solid Waste Authority’s properties, facilities and equipment, which would include the Cedar Grove Landfill and the activities conducted in the area, like the waste-to-energy project, the lawsuit said. The legal team attempted to have the judge sign protective orders without Cedar Grove’s requests to be notified and heard on the request.
“Defendants gave no consideration to how such actions by Defendants would interfere with the Cedar Grove Landfill operations and contravene the terms of the Landfill Operation Agreement between Plaintiff and the Solid Waste Authority,” the lawsuit said.
Commissioners hire a new legal team
After the commissioners filed a lawsuit against the Solid Waste Authority in the Lamar County Superior Court, requesting a judge to order the authority to allow the commissioners to inspect the facility and all documents pertaining to the project, the Solid Waste Authority and the ELS filed a lawsuit in federal court in Macon.
Judge Marc Treadwell ordered the commissioners to “not make any effort to inspect or gain access to the Waste-to-Energy project without having entered into a confidentiality agreement to protect those intellectual property rights of (ELS),” according to the lawsuit.
But instead of agreeing, the Lamar County commissioners voted on May 15 to get a new legal team that will take more legal actions against the Solid Waste Authority. The new legal team asked the judge to vacate the current Board of the Solid Waste Authority and authorize the commissioners to appoint new members; freeze the authority’s bank accounts, financial holdings and assets; and lastly, authorize the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office to secure all of the assets, the lawsuit said.
That request would also seek relief against Cedar Grove, according to the lawsuit, which does not give them the right to do so under the contractual agreement between the Solid Waste Authority and Cedar Grove.
“Defendants in bad faith and without justification seek to include the Cedar Grove Landfill in this new action against the Solid Waste Authority despite Lamar County and the Lamar County Commissioners having no ownership interest or any other legal interest or legal rights whatsoever in or to the Cedar Grove Landfill or its operation,” the lawsuit said.
The three lawsuits were halted as they await the outcome of the lawsuit filed in Lamar County Superior Court.
Complaint from commissioners provides more context
Although the Lamar County commissioners have not filed a legal reply to the lawsuit from Tuesday, they’ve responded to the other lawsuits from the Solid Waste Authority and ELS by denying allegations that their rights are being violated, court records show. But the complaint filed by the commissioners in Lamar County Superior Court provides further context.
The commissioners are seeking a declaratory judgment and injunctive relief against the Solid Waste Authority and asking for permission to inspect the project.
The Solid Waste Authority was set to have the waste-to-energy facility completed by 2017, but has allegedly not provided a “reasonably reliable date for the completion of construction,” the commissioners say in the complaint. And, whenever the commissioners asked for information on their waste-to-energy project, the Solid Waste Authority evaded their requests.
When Fox 5 Atlanta asked the executive director of the Solid Waste Authority, Johnny Poore, in 2023 why the project had been delayed so long, he explained that it was a lot more complicated than he initially realized. The project required redesigns, re-engineering, re-permitting and relocation. It was also affected by the COVID-19 global pandemic, Poore told Fox 5 Atlanta.
“(Jones County) has a vested interest in the waste-to-energy project because it is a public project intended for the benefit of the public,” the commissioners say in their complaint. “Defendant’s actions have left (the county) with no choice but to seek judicial relief in order to protect its interests.”
The Solid Waste Authority asked the judge to dismiss the commissioners’ case, but no order has been issued by the time of publication. However, Judge Thomas H. Wilson appointed a special master who will “provide guidance and advice to the Court on complex and specialized subjects, including but not limited to those topics identified in the Plaintiffs’ Complaints,” according to court documents. John F. Kennedy, an attorney, was appointed special master.
He will also be in charge of investigating and reporting to Wilson after conducting an accounting of the financial status, recent activities for the past three years and location of all assets of the Solid Waste Authority, court records show.
“The Authority is pleased with the Lamar Superior Court’s election to use a Special Master,” said Sean Smith, attorney for the Solid Waste Authority. “We look forward to working with him as these matters progress toward a resolution.”
