Landfill developers drop lawsuits
RIDGELAND — A company seeking to open a third solid-waste landfill here had a change of posture and dropped lawsuits against the county Board of Supervisors along with opposition to an annexation by the city.
NCL Waste LLC has been trying to build a third landfill in the county west of Ridgeland since about 2018.
NCL had filed an initial lawsuit last August in Madison County Circuit Court seeking a ruling to order supervisors to conduct a needs assessment, which is required by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality before it will consider granting a permit.
In September, NCL then filed a $60 million lawsuit against supervisors in Madison County Circuit Court alleging breach of contract because the county did not proceed with the needs assessment.
Both lawsuits were dismissed Thursday with prejudice by Madison County Circuit Court Judges John Emfinger and Steve Ratcliff.
Board of Supervisors Attorney Mike Espy said Friday he could not give specifics on why the cases were dismissed but that NCL’s attorney had contacted him earlier in the week to discuss dismissal of both lawsuits.
“Basically, there was no negotiation,” Espy said, adding both parties wanted the cases dismissed. “They just agreed to drop it with prejudice, which means it cannot be brought up on the same set of facts.”
Espy said a confluence of factors could have contributed to NCL dropping the lawsuits, including that the county had later agreed to conduct a needs assessment, litigation was about to enter an expensive discovery phase and legislation introduced in the Mississippi Legislature could limit the number of landfills MDEQ can approve in certain counties.
“The company had a change of posture,” Espy said, adding there was no guaranteed outcome if the case continued.
As part of the dismissal, both parties, the county and NCL, will have to pay their own fees, a cost Espy said he could not estimate for taxpayers.
Espy is paid hourly and the county had to hire Robert J. Dambrino III of Grenada, with the firm Gore Kilpatrick & Dambrino PLLC, to assist Espy with the litigation a rate of $200 per hour.
Espy said the county’s insurance did not cover such litigation and both parties are happy the lawsuits are no longer pending.
Espy said the county had not yet contracted with any company to begin a needs assessment of the county’s waste system.
“It was dismissed and a lot of people are happy about this,” Espy said. “No deals were made as a result of the dismissal to NCL, and it is in the board’s hands now to do something or nothing.”
Board of Supervisors President Karl Banks said supervisors will have to determine whether they want to conduct a needs assessment.
Banks acknowledged it had been a while since the county conducted a needs assessment and said such a study could be beneficial in helping Madison County meet the needs of waste disposal going forward.
Also, on Friday, NCL and Bilberry Family Limited Partnership dropped an appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court of an annexation petition by the city of Ridgeland of land where NCL proposed building the landfill.
With the appeals dismissal, Ridgeland can now proceed with the annexation.