About a half-dozen residents attended the Nov. 6 meeting of the Adams County Board of Supervisors in Natchez to ask questions - leading to alleged ethics violation discussion of one of the supervisors - about a proposed oilfield waste landfill.
A business owned by District 2 Supervisor Kevin Wilson wants to develop an oilfield waste landfill, if it makes it through the state’s approval process, on 400 acres in southern Adams County, which Wilson also owns.
The property is across the road from an existing Waste Management landfill.
Aimee Blount of Complete Oilfield Disposal attended the Oct. 16 meeting seeking a letter stating that states the county has no ordinances or zoning regulations that would prohibit the development of a landfill.
Blount says the letter was an early step in the permitting process that would allow the company to handle exploration and production waste from landfill.
Resident Millicent Graning asked Wilson at the November meeting if he owned the waste disposal company.
Soon after Graning began asking her questions, county attorney Scott Slover advised Wilson to recuse himself and leave the room. He did not provide that advice to Wilson Oct. 16.
After Wilson left, Graning continued to express her opinion about such a landfill operating. "I would hope" there's a better location for such an industrial landfill.
Graning asked if it was made clear on Oct. 16 that Blount and Wilson were in business together.
District 4 Supervisor Ricky Gray volunteered to answer. “I started asking questions and Supervisor Wilson said he owned the property. That’s how that conversation came up. But he didn’t say, ‘this is my company.’ It would have been "nice to know ... to begin with.”
At the Oct. 16 meeting, the request was for information about zoning and the supervisor "should have recused himself," Slover said. “We talked to the ethics commission about it." The question was simply about whether ordinances or zoning existed to prohibit it.
There needs to be more information, other than "from the potential business owner," Graning continued.
“I think the issue needs to come from MDEQ" (Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality) and an environmental toxicologist to see what the county is signing up for and "not in are adjacent to the National Wildlife Refuge,” she said.
Also, she said, people in the area have water wells. "What is the effect on groundwater? We need a lot more information.”
Topographical maps show it drains to the Homochitto River.
The river flows from its source in SW Mississippi for about 90 miles west and south, emptying into the Mississippi River between Natchez and Woodville.
Are resident Steve Stickland asked the board: “Why are we consistently bringing in economically potentially devastating type situations in front of economically deprived people. Why do we do that?" (Natchez Democrat 11/07/23) Ethics questions raised over proposed Mississippi oilfield landfill after supervisor revealed to be owner - Magnolia State Live | Magnolia State Live
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