A site for Greene Countians to dispose of debris from the winds and floods of Tropical Storm Helene is nearing completion. Officials now are just waiting on the final site inspection and permitting from the government.
Engineers with the Tennessee National Guard’s Joint Task Force Castle assist with road construction and site preparation and have been hauling rock and helping with grading of a site near the UT Extension Center, also known as the old Tobacco Experiment Station, on the Old Asheville Highway. Once completed, it will be an area that residents, clean-up crews, and even the county road department and other disaster response agencies can bring debris left behind from the storms.
The winds that preceded the floods downed trees on homes and roadways for two days before the Nolichuckey’s raging waters lifted and deposited debris from one end of the county to the other. What was left behind is much more than just dead trees and limbs. It is an enormous amount of trash, propane tanks, remnants of houses and furniture from as far away as North Carolina, plastics.
Each of those will have to be handled and disposed of in a different manner, and sorting of the debris may be required when it is brought. While much of what’s brought will be wood and can be burned, other items will have to be disposed of in a certain way, and some may be considered toxic.
Officials are waiting for final site inspection and permitting from FEMA before the site can be opened to the public.
