News > Med Waste Application Coverage

Med waste facility faces public opposition
By Kristin YarbroughPublished in the Blount Countian
Sept. 10, 2025
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Not in Blount County, and definitely not on the banks of the Gurley Creek, in a flood zone, or near our families and children. This was the firm message of the well over 100 residents who overflowed the Blount County Commission boardroom at the Sept. 4 public hearing for a proposed medical waste processing facility.
The 24 who spoke in opposition to the proposal included neighbors of the Remlap site, an environmental engineer, medical professionals, UAB professors, a researcher of the local watershed’s threatened species, representatives of Friends of the Locust Fork River and Black Warrior Riverkeeper, and a former Blount County judge.
Interspersed with their comments were statements from Harvest Med Waste Disposal CEO David Dyer and eight of Dyer’s associates who urged commissioners and attendees to support the application. Employees praised Dyer as a fair and responsible boss. Harvest’s engineer stated that the building’s floor appears to be above the floodplain. The company’s environmental attorney spoke of safe medical waste processing in hospitals next to compromised patients.
Dyer explained how he chose the location and the ozone technology that would be used, cited his flawless safety record as owner of a lab with 130 employees, and pledged to return over 10% of gross profits to the community. “From day one, I will put my money where my mouth is,” Dyer said.
Those opposed focused on the risks of what they argued was indeed hazardous waste. The facility would process sharps, gloves, blood-stained tubes, urine cups, gauze, bandages, masks, vials, swabs, gowns, and other items from red bins bearing the biohazard symbol.
Why, then, did the Harvest application state that the facility would process “non-hazardous waste”? Many said this felt like a deception. Dyer explained that it was a technical term. “We use the term ‘non-hazardous waste’ in the application because the term ‘hazardous waste’ has a specific legal definition,” Dyer said, “and this waste does not meet that legal criteria.”
Under federal law and Alabama regulations, the type of waste that Harvest would process is defined as “infectious” and as “biohazard,” but is categorized separately from “hazardous waste.” Legally, hazardous waste includes radioactive waste, DEA-regulated pharmaceuticals, highly flammable material, and hazardous chemicals, none of which would be processed at the facility, Dyer said.
Regardless of the classification, what if waste were strewn across the landscape due to a flood or a truck collision? First responders spoke of their lack of training, the danger, and the challenge of cleaning up such events, while neighbors worried about health risks to their families.
In response at the public hearing and in additional conversations, Dyer emphasized that Harvest would “go above and beyond to ensure compliance with floodplain regulations and to minimize risk.”
While neighbors and advocates for Gurley Creek and the Locust Fork River described the watershed as central to their own lives, as “the heart of Blount County,” and as the vulnerable home to the Gurley darter, the Black Warrior waterdog salamander, and the critically endangered flattened musk turtle, Dyer countered that “since the proposed facility location was constructed in 1998, it has never flooded.”
“The creek’s a non-issue,” Dyer emphatically replied at the hearing. “Why in the world would I invest millions of dollars if I was worried about flooding a creek where I would be sued til the end of time and put in prison if I was dumping into a creek?”
Fears about hormones or other potentially harmful substances entering the watershed are unfounded, Dyer explained. Although one gallon of water per hour is utilized to humidify the ozone gas during the sterilization stage, “the machine does not drain any liquids,” he said. “Liquids are absorbed in the materials being treated,” so no water from the machinery would enter the septic system.
Dyer also elaborated on Harvest’s engineer’s comments, stating that “out of an abundance of caution,” Harvest would construct elevated metal platforms to raise both the machinery and the untreated waste to ensure nothing could be disturbed even amid catastrophic flooding.
Comments by the 33 speakers were heard by Blount County’s four commissioners during the one hour, fifteen minute hearing. Commissioner Allen Armstrong strictly limited each comment to two minutes. Chairman Bradley Harvey was absent due to COVID, Armstrong said.
Blount County Solid Waste Disposal Authority Board meets Thursday, Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. in the Commission Boardroom for a public hearing and to make a recommendation to the Commission regarding Harvest’s application. The Commission’s vote is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 2. If approved, the application would advance to Blount County Circuit Court and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for final clearances.