A lawsuit filed Monday seeks to stop the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) from taking any action on a permit for a Perry County landfill.

The suit was filed in the Fifteenth Judicial Court on behalf of several plaintiffs by the law office of J. Doyle Fuller, a Montgomery attorney.

The alleges a number of problems with legal procedure as the reason the court should void a Sept. 10, 2002, resolution by the Perry County Commission which granted Perry County Associates (PCA) – a private company – government approval for construction and operation of the landfill.

The suit also asks the court to stop ADEM from considering PCA’s permit application until it legally obtains government approval.

One problem Fuller saw with the permit process concerned public notification of any landfill application. According to the Code of Alabama, local governments must hold at least one public forum concerning the application, and that notice must be given at least 30 days before the proposed hearing date.

According to the suit, the public notice didn’t identify a contact person interested parties to get in touch with for more information. Also, while notice was published in the Selma Times-Journal within the time frame dictated by law, it wasn’t published in the Marion Times Standard 30 days before the hearing.

The suit also takes aim at a tipping fee which was imposed in the Sept. 10, 2002, resolution by the Perry County Commission.

According to the Code of Alabama, "This section shall not be construed to grant any … unit of local government the authority to impose a tipping fee…"