The question on everyone’s mind is what will be the impact on businesses and residents with the decision made by the Habersham County Commission. Effective February 29, 2024, the Habersham County landfill will no longer accept construction and demolition (C&D) waste. The eventual closure of the C&D cells puts a strain on the county as well. The impact on county finances, residents, and construction contractors working in Habersham County remains to be seen.
To dispose of these waste materials, contractors and residents will have to travel further adding even higher costs to construction and demolition projects. For the next 60 days, the county will accept C&D waste to accommodate current projects; however, future projects will see inherent increases in waste removal costs due to the time and distances required to travel to disposal sites outside of the county.
Impacts on the county
The county will encounter an immediate financial impact once the landfill stops accepting C&D waste. No longer will the landfill receive approximately $632,000 in tipping fee revenue per year. Finance Director Tim Sims explained the repercussions of not accepting C&D waste at the September 18 work session. “Based on last year’s numbers, July (2022) to June (2023), there was about $632,000 in revenue from the C&D to the landfill,” Sims told the commissioners. He explained that the landfill will show a loss each year but that loss is from non-cash expenses of depreciation and post-closure expenses. Sims told the commissioners, “Cash-wise, I think we will be OK. We’ll just show a loss every year because of the depreciation and post-closure costs.”
Sims was asked by the commission what the revenue was at the landfill. He stated that the landfill generated last year approximately $2.8 million in total. When you back off the C&D revenue, it would decrease to approximately $2.2 million.
The fund balance will be reduced
According to County Manager Alicia Vaughn, that impact will reduce the fund balance for the landfill over time which is used to purchase new equipment and pay for capital projects related to the landfill. She informed the commission, “We’re not going to be building up any significant fund balance.” She warned, “It’s important to know that is going to put a new burden eventually on the General Fund.” Vaughn added, “Any plans to build a transfer station or anything like that will have to be considered through the General Fund.”
Other impacts
Another impact for the county that has not been addressed will be enforcement. Once the landfill stops accepting C&D waste, illegal dumping will increase due to the inconvenience and costs associated with going out of the county to dump. The impact for the county will be the need for additional code enforcement officers to cite those who dump illegally and those property owners who allow illegal dumping on their property. The county will also be responsible for cleaning up illegal dumps that occur on rarely traveled roads.
Impacts on residents and businesses
Residents and businesses will be impacted due to increased travel times and costs by taking their C&D waste to a location outside of the county. The inconvenience will come for residents because there are only one or two landfills that accept C&D waste on Saturdays.
Property taxes will be targeted eventually by the loss in revenue at the landfill. There will be a need to subsidize the landfill for large capital expenditures. To minimize the subsidy on property owners, tipping fees for household trash may have to increase in the future to cover new equipment costs and capital improvements.
Proactive measures
Proactive measures have been taken by some waste contractors who started diverting C&D waste to other landfills years ago. According to Waste Away owner Matt McKay, he began diverting most of his trash a few years ago to the Waste Management landfill in Banks County. He explained that the diversion was due to reports that the Habersham County landfill was filling up faster than anticipated. He also stated that all of his C&D waste was diverted to Banks County years ago as well due to costs at the Habersham County landfill. Recently, he has started taking lighter loads of C&D waste to Habersham C&D, LLC on Welcome Home Road in Mt Airy.
There is much to be explored regarding the Landfill and the necessary measures to take to ensure the future of Habersham County and its businesses and residents.
SEE ALSO
Construction and demolition waste? Here’s where to go and what to expect
