City officials: Service Delivery Strategy agreement in violation by county
The City of Rockmart is set to host a meeting about the municipal sludge issue and explain why the city’s byproduct from wastewater processing – along with the City of Cedartown’s – should be allowed to be dumped into the Grady Road Landfill alongside municipal household waste.
The meeting set for September 30 at 6:30 p.m. in the council chambers at city hall.
The goal of the session is to educate the public about the issues surrounding municipal sludge, the cost incurred to the city for the disposal and other items involved with the problems caused by the ruling made in 2019 to cut off all sludge from going into the landfill.
Among those problems is the county’s violation of the Service Delivery Strategy agreed to by both the cities of Rockmart and Cedartown and the County government that goes beyond the use of the landfill to dispose of municipal sludge.
The cities among other areas provide county residents with fire service, recreation opportunities through programs and parks, and cooperation with local law enforcement agencies that conduct operations together on a regular basis. City officials are concerned that if one portion of the agreement is already being violated, that other areas of cooperation will be impacted as well.
The City of Rockmart alone has spent more than $1 million in fees over the past five years in disposing of municipal sludge outside of Polk County, generated locally by homeowners including those in the county who are able to utilize commercial services to dispose of their septic waste at both Cedartown and Rockmart’s wastewater processing plants.
The session is meant to be educational for the public to understand what municipal sludge is and how it is processed, and to encourage residents to take part in the county’s upcoming public hearing on the matter on October 7.
Check back for more information as it becomes available.
