CLEVELAND - At a Monday meeting, the White County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously that Chris Mote with Mote Pumping Service must follow the regulations of the county's land application system (LAS) if he wants to operate a proposed septic waste disposal facility on Paradise Valley Road in the county.
Mote appeared before the commissioners Jan. 23 during a work session and said the county planning department refused to issue a land disturbance permit for his facility because he did not have an LAS permit. The commissioners did not take any action at that time because it was a work session, but instead waited until their regular meeting Monday to act on the issue.
Around 140 people attended the Monday meeting with some expressing their opposition to Mote's proposed septic waste disposal facility. Among those naysayers was Lena Dowdy, who lives adjacent to the proposed site, "You've got two kids' camps, you've got wineries, you've got subdivisions, you've got trout streams, a retirement RV park...this is not the place for this type of facility," Dowdy said.
Kim Fletter was among the supporters for Mote, however, "Your septic tank, (which) has been grandfathered in for centuries in this county, creates more waste in our environment that this system that this man is proposing," she told commissioners.
In May of 2009, the commissioners approved a set of strict ordinances regulating septic waste disposal: Mote contends that he is grandfathered in.
White County Commission Chairman Travis Turner, however, voiced at the meeting that he sees things differently "It is the belief, by the vote of this board, that he is not grandfathered in, that he needs to go through this application process like any other applicant," he told his fellow commissioners and those attending Monday's meeting.
Mote has threatened legal action if not allowed to operate his waste disposal facility.
Saturday
June 28th, 2025
6:58PM
