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NATCHEZ — Riverbend Environmental — which is the landfill utilized by waste disposal companies for the City of Natchez, Adams County and Vidalia — will be back in use Thursday for the first time since August, officials said.

The landfill, located in Jefferson County, had been out of service since it caught fire on Aug. 16.

During the closure officials made an emergency switch to use another landfill in Sibley costing more than double what was being paid per ton of waste.

To use the Riverbend facility, the City of Natchez pays $14 per ton, Adams County pays $19.39 per ton and the Town of Vidalia pays $15.94 per ton, officials said.

Each will pay $44 per ton for the weeks that trash companies had to haul waste to Sibley instead, officials said.

Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson said that he received a call from Arrow Disposal Services this week and they told him would begin hauling trash to Riverbend again on Thursday.

After returning to Riverbend the fees will return to their normal rates, officials said.

“We are very grateful, and we are hoping that is the case,” Gibson said of the return to Riverbend.

Gibson said he believes the city will be able to absorb the increase in cost for waste disposal without increasing garbage fees for Natchez residents.

“We are working to amend our fiscal year 2019-2020 budget right now and we do have a surplus,” Gibson said. “We are going to be easily able to withstand the increase without having to pass the cost increase along to the citizens. We have no anticipation that we will be increasing garbage fees. We did anticipate that we would be returning to Riverbend before the end of September and have budgeted our current cost per ton for the upcoming fiscal year.”

Natchez and Vidalia officials said they had not yet received invoices for the month of August that would show how much more they would pay to haul waste to Sibley.