City of Knoxville officials say a clean-up plan may soon be in place for one of the two dump sites holding tons of used roofing shingles.
The shingles began piling up after the hailstorms of 2011, which led many area homeowners to replace their roofs.
A group of men from Kentucky leased two area properties and charged people to drop off their old shingles with the intent of recycling them into asphalt.
But the shingles at the two Greenphalt LLC. sites kept piling up and the city filed an injunction against the company to prevent them from accepting more.
Now City Law Director Charles Swanson says the men responsible for the company have skipped down, leaving the property owners to clean up the mess.
He says there is a September 25th meeting scheduled with the owner of the Lexington Drive site, just off the I-40 Lovell Road exit.
"He plans to put a plan out there for us and seek our approval for that plan, certainly I hope that we're able to give that," said Swanson.
But he cautions even with a course of action in place, the sheer volume of material-- once estimated at around 50,000 pounds-- means clean up will take time.
On the east side of town, the Boruff Street site looks emptier than when 10News last visited in January.
"They've already gone out there and have removed a lot of shingles from there, but it's just a bare start," said Swanson.
Large piles of shingles remain, but they're further from the street.
"They're trying to work with another company as I understand it who is developing some technology to recycle these shingles into asphalt," said Swanson.
He says while the Boruff Street site owners are being cooperative, there is no timeline for removing the shingles.
The law director says there's not a lot the city could have done differently in this case.
First of all, the shingles are on private property.
They filed an injunction against Greenphalt in January to prevent them from taking on more shingles.
They also fined them the maximum amount allowed under state law for zoning violations.
He says they could file a nuisance lawsuit against the property owners, but they're cooperating.
As for the Greenphalt owners, Swanson says they believe they've moved out out state.
And since he says they have no assets to go after, taking them to court would only cost taxpayers more money.