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COUNTY LINE, Alabama — The County Line Town Council did not vote on a proposed landfill at its meeting tonight or discuss the topic, further cementing opponents’ fears that the council would do nothing to stop the project.

“By my count, they have about 60 days,” said Bob Shows, chairman of the Blount County Solid Waste Authority, who has been vocal in his landfill opposition.

Thornhill Marion Properties, the company that would own and operate the 219-acre landfill, submitted a permit application last month to the town for local approval. If council members take no action within 90 days of receiving the permit, local approval is automatically granted and the application is sent to the Alabama Department of Environmental Management for final approval. That is where the lawsuits would start, but certainly not end, for the tiny town of County Line, Shows said.

Alabama has a recently passed a two-year moratorium on landfills. Some people interpret the moratorium to mean that even local approval of a landfill permit would be in violation of state law, Shows said.

“The easiest thing for them to do is vote down the current application and have them resubmit it after the moratorium is lifted,” Shows said.

Opponents of the landfill could file suit against the town as soon as local approval is granted, citing the state moratorium, Shows said.

A public hearing on the landfill was held Monday night, where several residents pleaded with council members to stop the landfill.

The council has not indicated how they would proceed. Dennis Finch, council member, said on Monday night that the council would probably seek legal advice about the moratorium.

The council has already passed a new Solid Waste Management plan earlier this year that would allow a household garbage landfill in the town of about 270 people. The landowner who is proposing the landfill, John David Calvert, is first cousin to the town’s mayor Larry Calvert. Four out of five members of the town council are connected to the Calvert family.

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