COLUMBIA — A proposed megadump in Marlboro County could be derailed under a proposed bill in the S.C. Senate.
Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, introduced the bill that would put a moratorium on all proposed new or expanded mega-dumps in the state until 2011.
“We’ve got to make certain that we don’t become the dumping ground of the rest of the country,” Malloy told a Senate subcommittee Thursday. “I don’t want my district to be the bookends of the landfills in this state.”
Malloy, who represents portions of Marlboro, Darlington, Chesterfield and Lee counties, said a megadump already in Lee County has drawn the ire of local residents.
The proposed site for the Marlboro County landfill is about 900 acres near Wallace, which is in the northern part of the county near the North Carolina border.
The Solid Waste Management Act passed in 1991 requires major landfills to be 75 miles apart. While the one proposed in Marlboro County meets the requirement, if built, the Pee Dee would have more than double the capacity for waste removal than it needs.
A referendum vote November in Marlboro County on whether the dump should be built found that 94 percent of county residents opposed to the idea.
Most of the waste buried in the megadumps comes from out of state, leading Gov. Mark Sanford to propose raising the state’s garbage fees to discourage the out-of-state waste. The “tipping fee” would be $3 for every ton of garbage.
The megadump in Lee County has one of the largest railyards in the state to help being in tons of garbage from other states.
“These landfills come to South Carolina not because the geology is right, but because the political climate is right,” said Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter. “We need to find a way to take care of our needs and have the capacity to meet that but not open ourselves up to be a dumping ground.“
Leventis was critical of the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control, accusing it of handing out permits to anyone who applied for one.
“We clearly have capacity issues in this state,” said Heather Spires of the Coastal Conservation League. “We have twice as much capacity as we need.“
Spires’ group supports the bill, saying DHEC’s regulations are flawed and must be revised before any new megadumps are built in the state.
If passed, the bill would prevent DHEC from considering a landfill permit until Dec. 31, 2010, while the agency studies the effects these megadumps are having on the environment.
The interest in the bill from lawmakers and citizens, who filled the meeting room Thursday hoping for a chance to speak, has led the subcommittee to hold a public hearing on the bill in two weeks.
But Malloy said the bill is pretty straightforward.
“Once you build a landfill, it’s done,” he said. “We at some point in time have to exercise the political will for what is the right thing to do.”
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement