McCreary votes Yes to join Scott County Governments
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McCreary votes Yes to join Scott County Governments
By Shane Gilreath
The McCreary County Attorney, Austin Price, and his wife, Darlene Price, were outspoken critics of the proposed Winfield landfill during the McCreary County Fiscal Court meeting on Friday. Darlene Price, who produced a documentary on the subject of waterway pollutants, has long been an advocate for health and safety.
With rumors swirling about the Scott County government, McCreary County, its neighbor to the north, voted unanimously to officially join a coalition of governments on Friday. The McCreary County Fiscal Court, the Kentucky equivalent of the Scott County Commission, voted unanimously on a resolution allowing the neighboring government to join a coalition on the proposed landfill and transfer station in Winfield.
“Our objective,” Judge-Executive Jimmie “Bevo” Greene told SCN last week, “was to get in front of the possibility of a landfill in Winfield and what the effects of runoff might have on our water source.”
As of press time, McCreary County officially joins Huntsville and Oneida in passing resolutions on the planned coalition, which hopes to encompass the Mayor and Aldermen of Winfield, who meet on July 8th, and the Scott County Commission, who have added the issue to their June 30th agenda. The McCreary County resolution seeks to assemble data on the environmental status of water and land in regard to the current landfill debate. According to Greene, the objective is to ensure that any such landfill is in the best interest of all parties involved.
Given the wording of the McCreary resolution, the county seeks to employ environmental professionals, as well as legal professionals versed in environmental issues and law. Greene turned to McCreary County Attorney Darlene Price, a long outspoken adversary of waste-based pollution, for comment. Price, who recently published the book, “While No One Was Watching” and produced the 2022 documentary, “Lake Cumberland: What Lies Beneath,” on the contamination of Pulaski County, Kentucky, waterways, said that it remains her hope that all impacted governments vote against the project proposed by Knox Horner, the Cleveland, Tennessee, businessman who has become a familiar face in Scott County.
“This is not just a normal, run of the mill landfill,” Price told the court. “This guy (presumably, Horner) is proposing an addition on top of what already exists. A 700-acre landfill. That’s big! Why is that a problem?” she asked. “It’s proximity to Bear Creek. We are down stream from Bear Creek and that is going to affect our drinking water.”
Price went on to cite evidence of pollution, via leachate, a contaminate with which she has crossed paths. “A lot of these landfills accept what is called demolition waste,” Price told Greene. “Demolition waste is some of the most toxic stuff there is. They tear down old buildings that have this stuff called asbestos in it,” she continued, before asking the attendees to raise their hand if they wanted to swim in asbestos. No one did.
According to EPA standards, such landfills must qualify for such waste, but could receive construction and demolition debris, which typically consists of roadwork material, excavated material, demolition waste, construction/renovation waste, and site clearance waste, some of which could contain elements of asbestos, which has been linked to an increased risk of lung, ovary, and larynx cancers, mesothelioma, and asbetosis, as well as chronic respiratory diseases, scarring of the lung tissue, and aggressive forms of cancer that affect the lining of the lungs, abdomen, and heart.
“These landfills are notorious for having ‘forever chemicals,’” Price warned the McCreary Court. “This is PFOS, PFOA C8. This is the most toxic stuff there is.”
This is not Kentucky’s first entanglement with such issues. In 2023, Price told the court, attorneys brought suit on behalf of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet (EEC), alleging that chemicals from DuPont had polluted the commonwealth, via the Ohio River. “For years, the DuPont Company knowingly discharged per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into the Ohio River from its plant in West Virginia, all to the detriment of public water systems that use the Ohio River as a source and to Kentuckians who use the Ohio River for recreation,” said EEC spokesperson John Mura at the time of the suit. “Team Kentucky is committed to ensuring that every Kentuckian has clean water with which to drink and recreate.”
Historically, this is just one of dozens of similar lawsuits nationwide, which outline potential contamination, culminating in the loss of billions of dollars for companies knowingly dealing in contaminates.
“We don’t need them,” Price declared. “Not only is it effecting our water, but we’re talking the Big South Fork.”
According to NPS data, there were no violations of water quality during the 2024 fiscal year, but concern over the future of Big South Fork, which sees annual numbers just shy of a million, and the potential threat to a growing tourism industry has led to uneasiness.
“Of all the bad ideas to come around in the history of McCreary County and Scott County,” Price said. “This is one of the worst.”
Price’s husband, County Attorney Austin Price, agreed. “This is the most dangerous thing facing McCreary County. We can’t rely on Frankfort. We can’t rely on Nashville,” the County Attorney said. “The gun is pointed at us. The barrel is pointed at us. We need to take care of ourselves with this.”
Greene went on to say that McCreary County Water Superintendent Steven Whitaker and his father, the Oneida Water General Manager, Steve Owens, echo similar concerns.
“This is a no brainer,” Darlene Price said. “It needs not to happen.”
