Williamsburg officials end Nesmith landfill debate

KINGSTREE — After nearly two years of debate, Williamsburg County Council is seeking to be released from any agreements with MRR Corp. to establish a so-called “megadump” in the county.

Councilman W.B. Wilson moved after an executive session during council’s meeting Monday night that “upon the offer of $750,000 by the county, any and all contracts with MRR are to be declared null and void.”

The motion passed unanimously. Councilman Sam Drucker was absent from the meeting.

MRR Williamsburg has been at the center of a controversial development of a proposed landfill in Nesmith, which would accept large quantities of waste from other counties and from out of state. MRR Williamsburg is a subsidiary of MRR Southern LLC of Greensboro, N.C., a company that develops and manages landfills.

At peak activity, the proposed Nesmith landfill could have received more than two millions tons of solid waste per year.

Wilson said MRR wanted to keep the state Department of Health and Environmental Control permit it received for the Nesmith site, but council wouldn’t agree to it, so the county had to pay a higher price to negate the contract.

“We will not have a megadump in this county,” he said. “MRR wanted the permit, so they could go anywhere they wanted to open a landfill. But we still have the permit and could operate a smaller landfill suitable for our needs.”

Council’s action, which is expected to be signed by MRR Corp., doesn’t end the county’s solid waste problem, but councilmen BoBo Huggins and Wilson both said after Monday’s meeting council’s action frees the county to look at alternatives.

The county has been under a consent agreement with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control extending the closing date of the current landfill near Salters. It doesn’t meet current standards of construction, but the county has been allowed to keep it open until capacity is reached, as long as progress is being made on construction of a new one.

Wilson said DHEC has extended the deadline into 2010.

“We’re going to get to work,” he said. “We’ll have to be ready by then.”

In November, council approved a purchase contract for land adjacent to the present Salters landfill to obtain needed fill dirt for continued operations and eventual closure of the landfill. The parcel in question is owned jointly by many family members and Williamsburg County Attorney W. E. Jenkinson III is working on clearing the title for the purchase.

An active group of residents has been monitoring each council meeting since the Nesmith landfill was proposed. When council passed the motion Monday night, many applauded and shouted “Praise the Lord!” and “Amen!”

DHEC allows waste companies to bring in garbage from places like Atlanta and Baltimore to be buried in the Palmetto state. DHEC officials said three major new landfills had been proposed for Williamsburg, Marlboro and Cherokee counties.

Williamsburg County residents, joined by others, traveled to the Statehouse on Jan. 27 to protest the growing number of so-called “megadumps” in South Carolina.

“Trying to find the good life is what brought me to South Carolina,” Russell George, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Williamsburg County, said during the protest. “I hope to die here, and I certainly hope it’s not because of a landfill built up the road from me.”

State Sen. Gerald Malloy of Hartsville said he is worried South Carolina is becoming the nation’s dumping grounds and introduced a bill Jan. 27 that would put a moratorium on all new landfills and landfill expansions until 2011.

In his executive budget proposal, Gov. Mark Sanford wants to start charging a $3 per ton “tipping fee” on all garbage brought into the state. Not only will it bring in much-needed revenue for the state, Sanford said, but it also will help discourage other cities and states from using South Carolina as a dumping ground.

— Nick Needham of the Media General Columbia Bureau contributed to this report.