FAIRHOPE, Ala. - On Wednesday, Gov. Robert Bentley placed a moratorium on the issuance of new or modified permits for landfills in the state, pending the adoption of what some groups have said will be stricter regulations by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.

“We have long believed that Alabama has become the nation’s dumping ground and a thorough review of the state’s permitting process is needed to ensure Alabama remains ‘The Beautiful,’” stated Adam Snyder, executive director of Conservation Alabama Foundation. “We applaud Gov. Bentley for taking this important step in order to get our landfill problems under control in Alabama.”

But an attorney for Citizens for a Clean Southwest Alabama, a group opposing a proposed landfill in Conecuh County, said Bentley’s order might not prevent the 5,100-acre Conecuh Woods landfill project.

”(The order) does impose a moratorium on the issuance of permits by ADEM,” said David Ludder, an attorney who once held the top lawyer job at ADEM. “It does not preclude the Conecuh County Commission from acting on the Conecuh Woods application and a failure to act would still be approval by default.”

The executive order signed by Bentley on Feb. 23 states that “the regulatory and permitting process as it currently exists does not adequately allow for the review, study and analysis of the impact of such large facilities on the citizens and resources beyond those most immediately adjacent to those facilities.”

The order instructs ADEM to adopt new regulations that “take into account the effect, both immediate and long-term, of such facility with respect to not only the adjacent community or region, but other regions of the State of Alabama and the State of Alabama as a whole.”

Some of the the issues ADEM are to take into account are include the environment, health, safety, infrastructure, natural resources and economic development.

While some environmental activists— including one with the Conecuh County group— have hailed the governor's moratorium, Ludder said the order could create new problems for local residents challenging nearby landfills.

The order “requires another level of review — the advisory committee — and would broaden the scope of ADEM's review far beyond its current scope of review,” Ludder said.