Dispute over Scott County landfill

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – A big dispute between Scott County and Fayette and some other surrounding counties over Scott County’s landfill could have a big financial impact down the line.

The Urban Council’s Public Works Committee was told Tuesday Scott County wants its landfill to stop taking trash in October. Scott County said it’ll be at capacity.

That’s bad news for Fayette, Franklin, Jessamine, and Nicholas counties which also dump their trash there. The case is in court with Scott County saying it doesn’t want the landfill to expand.

The other counties said their numbers show the landfill has capacity for several more years.

They also said Scott County benefits too, by selling methane the landfill generates to Toyota.

“Scott County and Georgetown, while it’s hard to say benefit from our garbage, but they do benefit from central Kentucky’s garbage,” said Preston Worley, council member. “It partially powers their largest employer, the region’s largest employer that pays occupational license fees and net profit taxes to that community. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. We certainly will be damaged if our servicer cannot service our garbage for the price quoted, it may put them out of business or may cost our garbage prices to grow exponentially.”

Other counties have sent resolutions to the state urging it to side with them in the dispute. The urban council will be asked next week to pass a similar statement. If Scott county wins the other counties could be forced to spend millions more taking trash to other locations.

We reached out to Scott county’s judge-executive, who said due to litigation, he can’t comment.