DALTON, Ga. — The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) removed the former Dalton landfills on Brooker Drive and Underwood Road from its hazardous site inventory in 2001, according to an agency spokesman.

Some citizens have raised questions about the Brooker Road landfill because of its proximity to the proposed site of a sixth- and seventh-grade school for Dalton Public Schools. The site is across the north Dalton bypass from Dalton Middle School.

EPD Communications Director Kevin Chambers said the landfills were removed from the hazardous site inventory because testing showed only very low levels of dangerous chemicals in the ground or water at the sites.

According to a 2001 story in the Daily Citizen-News, the Underwood Road landfill was used until 1972 and the Brooker Road landfill was used until 1979. The story, citing a report prepared for the EPD, said the landfills received “common household refuse along with a variety of industrial wastes, primarily from the carpet industry.”

“Both of them predated any regulations, so they were not permitted (had to obtain permits),” said Chambers. “We now have the Solid Waste Management Act to support our regulations. But we did not have that back in the day.”

Neither of the landfills is a federal Superfund site. According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, there are no Superfund sites in Whitfield County.