Chattanooga Public Works officials have been hauling dirt in and out of a private landfill company for more than a decade on nothing more than a gentleman’s agreement.
“I don’t know if there’s a written agreement,” said Jerry Stewart, the city’s director of the waste resources division. “We wouldn’t be doing it if it weren’t to the city’s advantage.”
Mr. Stewart said the city has been hauling dirt out of the private C&D Landfill and taking it to the city’s Birchwood landfill next door since March 1999. The dirt is used to cover waste in the public landfill, Mr. Stewart said.
But City Attorney Mike McMahan said he is leery about the city doing such ventures without a contract.
“I’d much prefer when we’re going onto someone’s property to have something in writing,” he said.
C&D Landfill is operated by Environmental Materials LLC, records show. The company also has a 10-year contract to haul waste or garbage for the city from Wisdom Street to the Birchwood landfill, Mr. McMahan said. But he said he could find no record of a contract to haul dirt from one site to another.
Mr. Stewart said there are significant savings from taking the dirt from the private landfill to the public site. If the dirt were hauled from five to six miles away, it would cost much more, he said.
The city takes an average of 100,000 yards of dirt from C&D Landfill each year, he said, and the usual costs would be about $300,000 to $400,000.
Ray Marler, president of Environmental Materials, said the deal he has with the city is much better.
“It’s free,” he said. “No money changes hands. I’ve given the city dirt for years, it’s the closest place.”
He said the facility has got “plenty of dirt” to give to the city and that both parties get something out of the deal. The city gets dirt, and he can expand the capacity of his landfill, he said.
Councilwoman Deborah Scott said she was unaware of the lack of contract until Thursday. But she said she thinks it needs to be studied.
“If there’s something we’re not doing, or something we need in writing, we need to get it,” she said.
Councilman Manny Rico, chairman of the city’s Public Works Committee, said Thursday he remembered touring the public landfill a few years ago and hearing about the arrangement between the city and Environmental Materials.
He said he could see the need for some type of written agreement just for bookkeeping purposes, but he thinks the practice should continue.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” he said. “It’s not costing anything.”