Jackson County now has the legal green light to buy state-owned landfill land for just $1 — but county officials say the approval arrives two years too late to do what it was originally meant to do. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed House Bill 4135 into law on October 5, clearing the way for the county to purchase all or a portion of the eligible state-owned property at the Dalton Road Landfill in Leoni Township. The bill's legal description gives the property an area of 81.078 acres. The county had planned to build an on-site wastewater treatment plant for landfill leachate, the garbage-tainted liquid that collects when rainwater seeps through a closed landfill's cap.
The newly enacted law gives Jackson County until October 6, 2028, to execute the $1 quitclaim purchase, according to MLive. The county already owns roughly half of the parcel, with the state co-owning the remainder. Legislative delays in Lansing held up the landfill project and its proposed treatment center.
A Bill Stuck Behind a National Guard Land Swap
State Representative Sarah Lightner of Springport first introduced HB 4135 in February 2025, and the Michigan House passed it on October 30, 2025, with little controversy. But the Michigan Senate sent it back to the House with an amendment tying it to Senate Bill 478, a separate measure introduced by Shink in July 2025 that would transfer 93 acres of former W.J. Maxey Boys Training School land in Livingston County's Green Oak Township from the Department of Corrections to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
The companion bill would transfer the Green Oak Township land to the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs for a Michigan National Guard readiness center. The two bills were tied together, so neither could take effect unless both passed, linking Jackson County's land deal to a separate National Guard project. The Michigan House ultimately passed HB 4135 a second time on September 22, 2026.
County Already Moved the Money Elsewhere
While the bill sat in limbo, Jackson County kept paying roughly $92,000 a year to truck thousands of gallons of contaminated leachate weekly to a disposal facility near Detroit, according to county documents cited by MLive. The county had proposed its landfill treatment plan back in January 2025, hoping to tap into its nearly $28 million infrastructure improvement plan. State analysis from Governor Whitmer's office estimated that an on-site treatment facility could have saved the county up to $100,000 annually compared with that long-distance hauling, per Governor Whitmer's office.
But county commissioners couldn't wait indefinitely for Lansing to sort out the National Guard land swap. After energy contractor Veregy recommended pivoting away from the stalled wastewater project, commissioners voted 8-1 in April 2026 to redirect infrastructure funding toward a solar array instead, according to reporting tracked on Muck Rack. The planned array is expected to be completed by year-end 2026 and to offset roughly 95% of the jail and morgue's electricity needs.
Strings Attached to the $1 Sale
Even with the law now signed, the purchase comes with conditions. Jackson County's $1 deal requires the land be used exclusively for public purposes, and if the county ever sells it later, the state gets first right of refusal. If Jackson County does not opt in within its two-year window, the state can use competitive bidding or public auction, with proceeds going to Michigan's General Fund, per the bill record on BillTrack50. The law also stipulates that if the county ever develops oil, gas, or mineral resources on the parcel, it must pay the state half of all gross revenues.
Any treated leachate discharged from a future plant would enter a watershed. The measure nonetheless passed in the House.
Jackson County still has until October 2028 to formally agree to the $1 sale and could, in theory, revisit the treatment plant project down the line. For now, though, the infrastructure dollars that were earmarked for that purpose are already committed to solar panels at Channer Road, leaving the county's original leachate solution shelved even as the land itself finally becomes available.
