Environmental Conservation: A Conservative Approach to Addressing Environmental Negligence, Injustice, and Tennessee’s Trash Problem
District 38 has been treated as everyone else’s dumping ground—not just figuratively, but literally. A new landfill and rail-transfer station have been proposed adjacent to an existing landfill and near a school located between Oneida and Winfield. If combined, the total acreage of both landfills would make this the second-largest landfill area in the nation to Las Vegas.
These facilities will likely create a disproportionate amount of pollution, destroy property values, prevent economic development, and poison the Big South Fork Cumberland River—the primary drinking water source for our neighbors to the north. Our children deserve an educational environment that enables learning, not one that increases the likelihood of asthma, cancer, and other chronic illnesses.
I have been active and involved in this fight since the beginning. I obtained the documentation that exposed the identities of those involved in the transaction and discovered corruption on a disturbing scale. I discovered records that exposed conflicts of interest and blatant environmental negligence. After a dedicated citizen discovered important records, I confronted the commission regarding the "disappearance" of documents indicating our compliance with the Jackson Law. I submitted this evidence to TDEC, forcing the registry to be updated to show we had adopted all past and new provisions of the Jackson Law—despite the record previously claiming it had lapsed. This was a big win in the fight against the Roberta II Landfill in District 38.
There were efforts to strip local communities and citizens of their voice. Alongside several remarkable community members, I fought to protect our district from bearing an even heavier burden of pollution. I fought to protect our economic future, our water, our air, our private property rights, and the future of our small businesses, national parks, and tourism. I went to community meetings, collected petition signatures from the community, and traveled to the Tennessee and Kentucky capitols to inform both Governors and state legislators of the threat to the Big South Fork Cumberland River.
Tennessee has a trash problem, but they cannot solve it by sacrificing the people of District 38. My Environmental Conservation & Accountability Plan draws the line.
I will support legislation that ends “zombie permits” by ensuring old permits automatically expire if they sit unpaid/delinquent or haven’t been constructed or operated on within an established timeframe. A new application = a new public hearing with modern community input.
I will continue to support efforts to protect and strengthen the Jackson Law so local governments—not Nashville bureaucrats or out-of-state trash companies—have the authority to approve or deny new landfills.
I will support legislation that establishes an offender registry so that those who have a record of environmental negligence lose the right to do business here.
I will support legislation that empowers local governments (with local input) to set fees for out-of-state trash and larger fees tied to road damage, enforcement, and water testing.
I will support legislation that protects stream buffers and requires adequate cleanup bonds so if something goes wrong, the company—not grandma on a fixed income—pays.
I will support anti-corruption legislation that establishes criminal penalties for those who sit on state or local solid waste decision boards and fail to recuse themselves from decisions wherein they have private interests.
I will support legislation to reform the Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation (TDEC). Our state’s environmental conservation agency should set its sights on conserving and protecting our environment—not the financial gain from landfill construction. Clearly, more oversight is needed in this department.
I will support legislation that solves Tennessee’s trash problem without creating more landfills. I support tax cuts for businesses that reduce waste and reuse/recycle what they can. The cheapest trash is the trash we never have to haul or bury.
This isn’t the Green New Deal—it’s common sense. If we are going to put Tennessee first, we need conservative leadership that defends the rights of private property owners and protects our communities from being turned into someone else’s trash can. Protecting our environment shouldn’t be a Republican or a Democrat issue. It is an issue that Republicans, Democrats, and other parties agree needs more aggressive legislation. If those in Nashville can’t see the importance of protecting small communities from a disproportionate amount of pollution, they are a part of the problem—not the solution.
“A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children”
