Polk County Commissioners will be gathering in October to hear from the public on their position on municipal sludge being allowed to dump into the landfill.

Those interested in speaking will want to take part in the meeting on Monday, October 7, and they’ll have to get to the Board of Commissioners meeting room at the Polk County Police Department headquarters ahead of time to sign up.

Commission Chair Hal Floyd said the meeting will begin at 5:15 p.m., but he’ll determine how long speakers will have based on the number of people who sign up ahead of the start of the meeting.

The board organized the public hearing after officials from the City of Cedartown and the City of Rockmart came to the commission earlier this month to stress issues they face financially and logistically from a court decision to ban all sludge from the landfill several years ago.

Since then, the cities have spent more than $1 million combined to dispose of their sludge elsewhere.

Floyd said additional time will likely be provided for the County Commission to ask questions of those speaking if needed, and to make their own statements.

Based on his internal polling of the board members, so far no one’s position has changed on the matter since a 3-2 vote against to seek permission from the court to change their ruling to allow for just municipal sludge to be disposed of in the landfill and no others.

Municipal sludge is the byproduct of wastewater treatment. The leftovers of what comes through sewer systems are treated through several steps before clean water is released back into Cedar Creek in Cedartown and Euharlee Creek in Rockmart.

After a multi-stage filtering process, the sludge becomes essentially like dirt and is odorless. It can be used in various applications – including as a agricultural fertilizer for crops, especially those not consumed by people.

Following a lawsuit between the County and GFL Environmental – the operators of the landfill after Waste Industries was purchased by the Canadian-based firm – over issues at the Grady Road Landfill, Judge Adele Grubbs made several stipulations about the operations and what is allowed in the landfill in a ruling in 2019.