Mississippi Code 1972 (2023) › Title 17 - LOCAL GOVERNMENT; PROVISIONS COMMON TO COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES (§§ 17-1-1 — 17-29-9) › Chapter 17 - SOLID WASTES DISPOSAL (§§ 17-17-1 — 17-17-507) › NONHAZARDOUS SOLID WASTE PLANNING ACT OF 1991 (§§ 17-17-201 — 17-17-237) › Section 17-17-237 - Local referendum election to approve new municipal solid waste landfill; procedure

(1)
No new municipal solid waste landfill shall be incorporated into any solid waste management plan and no reference in any existing plan to any unpermitted new municipal solid waste landfill shall be effective, applicable or operative and no permit, grant or loan shall be approved for any new municipal solid waste landfill in any county that has two (2) or more existing permitted municipal solid waste landfills and such new landfill will be located within a five (5) mile radius of an existing municipal solid waste landfill, unless a local referendum election has been called and held in the county in which the new municipal solid waste landfill is proposed and with the results hereinafter provided. The board of supervisors may require the proponent of or applicant for the new municipal solid waste landfill to pay the costs of the election.
(2)
Upon presentation and filing of a proper petition requesting same signed by at least twenty percent (20%) or fifteen hundred (1,500), whichever number is the lesser, of the qualified electors of the county, it shall be the duty of the board of supervisors to call an election at which there shall be submitted to the qualified electors of the county the question of whether or not the new municipal solid waste landfill proposed to be sited within the county shall be eligible for consideration by the board of supervisors for inclusion in the solid waste management plan of the county. Such election shall be held and conducted by the county election commissioners on a date fixed by the order of the board of supervisors, which date shall not be more than sixty (60) days from the date of the filing of said petition. Notice thereof shall be given by publishing such notice once each week for at least three (3) consecutive weeks in some newspaper published in said county or, if no newspaper be published therein, by such publication in a newspaper in an adjoining county and having a general circulation in the county involved. The election shall be held not earlier than fifteen (15) days from the first publication of such notice.
(3)
The election shall be held and conducted as far as may be possible in the same manner as is provided by law for the holding of general elections. The ballots used thereat shall contain a brief statement of the proposition submitted and, on separate lines, the words "I vote FOR new municipal solid waste landfill in ____________________ County ( )", "I vote AGAINST new municipal solid waste landfill in ____________________ County ( )" with appropriate boxes in which the voters may express their choice. All qualified electors may vote by marking the ballot with a cross (x) or check mark(Y) opposite the words of their choice.
(4)
The election commissioners shall canvass and determine the results of the election, and shall certify same to the board of supervisors which shall adopt and spread upon its minutes an order declaring such results. If, in such election, sixty percent (60%) of the qualified electors participating therein shall vote in favor of the proposition, inclusion of the proposed new municipal solid waste landfill in a solid waste management plan and permitting of such landfill may be approved provided that all other requirements of law are satisfied as to the landfill. If, on the other hand, sixty percent (60%) of the qualified electors participating therein shall not vote in favor of the proposition, the new landfill may not be included in any solid waste management plan and shall not be permitted. In either case, no further election shall be held in a county under the provisions of this section for a period of two (2) years from the date of the prior election and then only upon the filing of a petition requesting same signed by at least twenty percent (20%) or fifteen hundred (1,500), whichever number is the lesser, of the qualified electors of the county as is otherwise provided herein.
Added by Laws, 2021, ch. 308, HB 949,§ 3, eff. 3/10/2021.