White County is searching for alternative solutions or a potential new site for its solid waste department relocation after geological studies revealed the current county-owned property cannot support a standard septic system.
White County Executive Denny Robinson said the county intended to move its operations to land near an old rock quarry on Roberts-Matthews Highway to house trucks and equipment. Robinson said the project hit a snag when a geological study showed the soil would not perk.
“We’re going to have to come up with either an alternative system to dispose of the sewer or maybe find another location and we’re just going through that process now to see which is the lesser of two evils,” Robinson said. “But I mean, it wasn’t nothing was found like they found contaminants. It’s just that the soil wasn’t conductive to have a sewer system or septic system.”
Robinson said the county must now obtain a design and price estimate for a specialized system that could function at the rocky site. Robinson said this would likely involve finding suitable soil elsewhere on the property and pumping waste to that location.
“If we can’t find something on the county-owned land there, we may have to look at an alternate location then for the whole, for the whole project,” Robinson said.
Robinson said any delays to the relocation would depend entirely on how quickly a solution is identified. Robinson said the search for suitable soil is an ongoing daily process.
“If they end up not finding anything and then we’ve got to look for another location, probably whatever time it takes to find that alternate location would be equal to what the delay is,” Robinson said.
Robinson said the county will continue testing the Roberts-Matthews Highway property until every acre of county-owned land in that area has been exhausted. Robinson said engineers, soil scientists, and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation are involved in determining if any of the remaining soil is suitable.
“We want to make sure that we take the time to do this right so it is there forever, that some other administration and other county people 20 and 30 years from now won’t have to go back and try to fix this,” Robinson said. “We want to do it right the first time and so if it takes a few extra weeks or months to do that, then, then so be it.”
Robinson said the solid waste department needs a new base of operations because the county no longer operates a landfill and has transitioned to managing convenience centers.