Landfill delay bill gets key subcommittee vote

A bill that would put a moratorium on all new or existing landfill expansions — such as the one proposed in Marlboro County — passed a key Senate subcommittee vote Tuesday.

The bill is scheduled to go before the full Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

Concerned citizens, as well as industry experts, signed up to speak at the hearing. The turnout was so large overflow rooms were opened up to allow those gathered to hear the testimony and any questions subcommittee members had about the bill.

The key sponsors of the bill, Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, and Sen. Phil Leventis, D-Sumter, both have a so-called megadump either already in or planned for their districts.

Belvin Sweatt, of the Concerned Citizens of Marlboro County, compared the fight between county residents and waste companies with the biblical battle of David and Goliath.

“In this case, we the citizens of South Carolina are David,” Sweatt said.

Nancy Cave, of the Coastal Conservation League based out of Georgetown, said the time was right to put the ban in place while the regulations for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) were reformed.

DHEC has been criticized in recent months for being too lax on regulating the waste industry in the state. Thirty percent of municipal waste in South Carolina comes from out of state.

“Where was the state?” Cave asked. “The citizens looked to DHEC and they weren’t there.”

Several speakers asked lawmakers to clarify the bill, saying a moratorium on all landfills in the state could make it difficult for municipalities to properly dispose of their citizens’ garbage.

MRR Southern spokesman Dan Moore told subcommittee members that a few noisy activists had blown his company’s proposed landfill in Marlboro County out of proportion.

“Opponents advertise, and I quote, that MRR is trying to permit a 900-plus-acre landfill, the largest landfill in the United States,” Moore said. “Let me assure you that our waste disposal area, if ever permitted by DHEC, would be no more than 200 to 250 acres in size even after full development and 30 years of operations, not even close to one of the largest landfills in the state.”

MRR Southern backed off of plans to build a mega landfill in Williamsburg County after citizens complained and county leaders’ attitudes turned sour on the deal.

Several amendments were added to the bill before it passed out of the committee.

Sens. Danny Verdin, R-Laurens, and Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, tacked on two amendments that would enforce the moratorium only on class 3 landfills, such as the one planned in Marlboro County. The amendments also would lift the ban either by Dec. 31, 2010, or when a new set of regulations is approved by the Legislature that would require DHEC to decrease the amount of trash collected in the state even more, whichever comes first.

Kent Coleman, director of the division of lining and solid waste management for DHEC, said the current regulations had his hands tied, saying the General Assembly had to write new rules for DHEC to have any control over how much waste comes into the state from outside sources.

“We (currently) can’t dictate where the waste is coming from,” he said.