By Hannah Curran, Editor
ST. CLAIR COUNTY — An already tense situation grew more aggravating for St. Clair County officials on Tuesday night when Lisa Crane of WVTM reported that the governor’s office told her they had not received any request for assistance regarding a landfill fire in Moody.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s Office has confirmed that they have not received a request for help from St. Clair County or the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM).
However, Governor Ivey’s Communications Director, Gina Maiola, and St. Clair County Commission Chairman Stan Bateman said an announcement from ADEM is anticipated to be made today.
The St. Clair County Commission declared the Moody environmental landfill fire an emergency situation during an emergency called meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at the Pell City Courthouse. Bateman explained that they actually did write a letter requesting the governor to declare a state of emergency, among other things listed in the letter.
“We were asked by the governor’s office to hold off on sending that letter,” Bateman said. “They hadn’t received it because they asked us not to send it yet.”
Bateman said that the different mayors and himself had signed the letter, and it’s sitting in the county commission attorney’s attorney, James Hill’s office.
“He was asked not to send that letter yet because some major developments were happening,” Bateman said. “I’m a little aggravated that it allowed the governor’s office to say, ‘We haven’t received a letter, well, you didn’t receive a letter because you asked us not to send it.'”
Trussville Mayor Buddy Choat gave an update on the Moody Environmental Landfill fire during the Jan. 10 council meeting.
“The St. Clair County Commission met in Ashville, and obviously, they’ve received several different bids from companies around the country that have handled this kind of fire before,” Choat said during the meeting. “My understanding is they’re going to make a decision on what they’re going to recommend to send to Montgomery. At that point, ADEM will take over if they accept this particular bid.”
Choat explained that Hill said that all the received bids estimated the whole process would take about 30 days to clean up the whole landfill.
“So that’s encouraging,” Choat said during the meeting. “We’re trying to keep abreast with what’s going on; it’s been a long process since it started and ended up in the Commission’s lap. They’ve gotten to a point now where they’ve accepted these RFPs, and are going to Montgomery with it by the end of the week, is what I understand.”
The Tribune has reached out to St. Clair County Attorney James Hill but had not received a comment at the time of publication.