To cap off a roughly six-hour hearing Wednesday, a DeKalb County judge said she would take more time before she issues rulings in a case over a controversial concrete recycling plant.
The case over Metro Green Recycling’s plant, which is being built on a 50-acre property near neighborhoods in Stonecrest, has languished for months. Several competing motions have slowed the case to a crawl, and no real action has taken place since last August.
A citizen activist group and Stonecrest are trying to stop work on the site, located near Snapfinger Woods Drive and Miller Road. They claim the company improperly received authorization from the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to move forward with a facility that could expose residents to pollution. Metro Green and the EPD dispute those allegations and have their own countermotions to dismiss those claims.
Rulings had been expected to result from Wednesday’s hearing, but DeKalb Superior Court Judge Tangela Barrie said she would consider what she had heard before making any decisions.
“I have heard everyone. I’ve gotten my questions answered. I’ve reviewed all the documents,” Barrie said. “So the court will start decompacting the information and prepare some resolutions as quickly as I can do so.”
The crux of the case revolves around whether Metro Green properly received a solid waste handling permit. Tracy Hutchinson, director of the county’s sanitation division, denied the company’s request for a permit, claiming the facility wouldn’t comply with the county’s Solid Waste Management Plan.
Instead, the newly founded city of Stonecrest wrote a letter of approval to the EPD. An activist group, Citizens for a Healthy and Safe Environment (CHASE), DeKalb and Stonecrest all argue that the city’s leaders didn’t have the authority to write that letter of approval. Metro Green and the EPD claim the proper procedures were followed.
Metro Green is also suing the citizen activist group for libel, citing a few social media posts and signs that say their facility handles toxic materials, which it disputes. CHASE’s attorneys argue the speech is protected under the First Amendment and that Metro Green is trying to intimidate concerned neighbors from protesting the plant.
Citizens for a Healthy and Safe Environment has held several protests over the past year, and several of its members have called the facility’s construction “environmental racism.” Stonecrest, where the plant is being built, is about 94% Black, and the activist group worries the plant would expose nearby neighborhoods to air and noise pollution.
Matt Benson, Metro Green’s attorney, has pushed back on the pollution claims and said no evidence was presented to the court about potential environmental or health determinants.
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