JASPER, Tenn. -- City leaders have been forced to stop the town's residential brush pickup service after a single complaint prompted a state inspection of Jasper's disposal area.
Mayor Paul Evans said the location, known as a "burn pit," where city workers destroy the debris picked up from residential areas, was shut down recently by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
"We don't meet the requirements for it," he said. "Somebody complained, and that's the reason they came [to inspect it]."
According to state statutes, the facility must be at least a half-mile from an interstate, state highway, residential area or industrial area, among other regulations.
Evans said the city only burns debris once per month and was "completely within compliance" with state law, except for the proximity to an industrial business.
Officials said Jasper's burn pit off Industrial Boulevard is about 200 yards -- about one-eighth of a mile -- from an industrial site.
Coincidentally, Evans said residents could burn debris legally on their own property.
"Everybody in Gamble Subdivision could pile it up and burn it in their backyard and completely be legal, but we can't," he said. "It's a whole lot better having just one place burning it than having an entire subdivision out here burning it in their backyards."
The burn pit must be on city-owned property, Evans said, and right now, there is none that meets the state's restrictions.
This is only the second complaint filed against the facility. The last one was in 2010.
Evans said Jasper's free brush pickup service is suspended indefinitely, so residents will have to handle the disposal on their own.
"We just don't have anywhere to put it right now," he said.
The only option Jasper has to continue the service is to haul the debris to the Marion County landfill and pay $29 per ton for disposal. Evans said that's not financially feasible for the town.
"Take it to Nashville," Alderman Paul "Mac" Bumpus quipped.
Tim Davenport, Jasper's streets and sanitation supervisor, said most people wouldn't believe how much brush city workers actually collect on a daily basis.
He estimates they haul between five and eight dump truck loads per day in the springtime.
"It's probably something that the local citizens could certainly contact their state representatives about, and they can change that law," City Attorney Mark Raines said. "We have to follow it until it gets changed."
In some special situations, like a storm with strong winds, Evans said the city could get special permission from the state to use the burn pit.
He said he has asked state officials for permission to burn the debris that is piled up at the pit right now, but hasn't heard back from them so far.
"We are working on it and trying to find a solution," Evans said. "We're not going to give up on it."
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.