COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (localmemphis.com) – After months of getting an earful from hundreds of its citizens, leaders in the Town of Collierville had enough and filed a complaint against a landfill.
The town’s complaint – filed with theShelby County Chancery Court – is against the E-Plex Landfill Center on SheltonRoad.
The 17-page complaint argues thelandfill is a temporary public nuisance with odors, noise and safety issues andit asks the court for the landfill operators to immediately address thoseconcerns.The legal action against the facility was welcome news to vocalneighborhood leaders close by.
“It’s great that they’ve taken upthe cause for their citizens,” John Padbury said.
Padbury is the homeowner associationpresident in a subdivision which backs into the E-Plex landfill inCollierville, a facility he said sometimes causes a rotten egg smell to waftinto his backyard.
“We rate them from a 1 to a 10,”Padbury said. “We’ve had issues back in the January, February period, we hadoutbreaks that we characterized as a 10.”
The complaint by the Town ofCollierville against the E-Plex landfill argues those reported odors, safetyhazards and high noises at unreasonable hours from trucks, is causing atemporary public nuisance for those in surrounding neighborhoods.
“It does start as early as 4:30 and goesthrough 7:30, 8 o’clock at night, and that’s not right,” Padbury said.
A spokesperson with the TennesseeDepartment of Environment and Conservation – or TDEC – said after odorcomplaints by neighbors earlier this year, a team visited the landfill ownerand laid out an action plan.
But neighbors said that’s not goodenough and hope the complaint leads to better solutions.
‘In our mind he’s not proactive to fixwith what needs to be fixed and the results is we continue to get theseinvasions,” Padbury said.
Local 24 News left information seekingcomment for the landfill owner at his officer, but that owner wasn’t in andLocal 24 News hasn’t heard back. The first court hearing on this complaint isyet to be determined.