Next week, a Senate subcommittee is slated to discuss a proposed statewide landfill moratorium that could have ramifications outlasting the current economic challenges facing South Carolina.

Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, has championed a bill intended to curtail an incursion of out-of-state companies from erecting massive “mega dumps” across the state.

“The numbers are staggering,” said Davis, who called it a David vs. Goliath situation, where well-funded national companies are trying to shoehorn huge landfills into South Carolina.
According to Davis, nine states use South Carolina as their dumping grounds: New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Virginia.

“Almost 30 percent of the waste disposed of in South Carolina last year came from other states, and that amount increases steadily each year,” Davis said.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control has acknowledged that the landfill permitting process is broken. DHEC is looking into adjusting its “determination of need” procedure, according to Davis.

DHEC spokesman Thom Berry confirmed that the agency was considering changing the procedure. Berry said that while the state produced 4.5 million tons of municipal trash in fiscal year 2008, it disposed of 6.2 million tons that year.

Both numbers were down as much as a half-million tons from the previous fiscal year, according to DHEC. “Some areas have excess capacity, and some areas are closer to their capacity, which is why landfills are used regionally,” Berry said.

He said there is only one “mega dump” going through the permitting process. It is proposed for Marlboro County.

“The state already has twice the landfill capacity that it needs,” said Heather Spires, a lobbyist with the Coastal Conservation League. The league is working on the issue with more than two dozen other environmental groups across the state.

Berry confirmed that there is close to 10 million tons of yearly capacity permitted in South Carolina.

Spires said the environmental community came together on the issue after three “mega dumps” were proposed across the state, one each in Marlboro, Williamsburg and Cherokee counties.

“No one wants the seventh largest dump in the nation next to their house,” she said.
Counters Wes Muir, spokesman for Waste Management Inc., one of the companies looking to open a landfill in the state, “First off, I reject the notion of referring to landfills as mega dumps.”

Muir defended his company’s landfills, saying they were designed with liners and other features to stop leaching of nasty substances.

He acknowledged that past industry mishaps have created “reasonable concerns” in the public mind that need to be assuaged. “We see a well-managed plant as our social license to do business,” said Muir, who added that financial coverage is provided by his company to communities should an accident happen and the environment, or its residents, be harmed.

He said the landfill his company has proposed for South Carolina was better termed a “three-cycle plant,” which would be capable of a turning trash-produced methane into a renewable fuel source.

Muir listed other positives a larger landfill brings, in addition to economic advantages to the company: “Clean and green” knowledge-based jobs, an increased tax base and economic development to the community and state that welcomes it.

Sen. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, will chair the Senate subcommittee looking into the proposed moratorium. The panel plans to meet Tuesday. Verdin declined to comment until that time.

Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said his committee is taking a wait-and-see approach with what emerges from the Senate before acting.

Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg and a subcommittee member, wasn’t as cautious. Hutto, whose district does not include a proposed mega dump, unabashedly opposes a moratorium.

Hutto likened landfills to water resources in the state: “We’ve got plenty, but not always where we need ’em.” He pointed to several counties whose proximity to fragile rivers and ecosystems mean they have to rely more on out-of-county and out-of-state landfills, such as Davis’ Beaufort County. “As do many of the counties located along our state’s borders,” he said.

Hutto said the solution was not to create a statewide moratorium, but to focus on changing DHEC procedures and policies, and promulgating law only as needed.
One thing Hutto and Davis agreed on: Any changes in state law or DHEC policies would come too late to affect the proposed Marlboro facility.

Regardless, an ugly issue might cloud the horizon, and that is, of course, the state’s economy. The question will arise, as it relates to the moratorium, is this the time to turn away any money — even dirty, trashy money?

Bill Davis is the editor of SC Statehouse Report; he can be reached at editor@statehousereport.com. Let us know what you think: Email news@free-times.com.