Marlboro County to fight proposed ‘megadump’

BENNETTSVILLE — Steven Webber, an attorney representing Marlboro County in the fight against MRR Sandhills LLC’s proposed landfill, spent about 40 minutes during a public forum Thursday trying to reassure residents that county council is going to continue to fight the so-called “megadump” after the S.C. Administrative Law Court dismissed two of the county’s appeals Monday.

After an executive session for legal advice relating to litigation, Council reconvened in open session to allow Webber to present information on what steps it has taken in appealing the landfill and to explain S.C. Administrative Law Court Judge John D. McLeod’s ruling.

McLeod ordered that Marlboro County’s two appeals be dismissed and that the “county will not lose its right to appeal any of the issues the county has raised heretofore, and will have another opportunity to appeal all of these issues at the end of the public notice and application process.”

The decision means the court agrees the state Department of Health and Environmental Control was correct in issuing a permit to MRR Sandhills LLC to building the Sandhills Regional MSW Landfill on about 900 acres near Wallace, which is in the northern part of the county near the North Carolina border.

Other parties also can appeal DHEC’s final decision on the landfill.

According to a press release issued by DHEC, MRR Sandhills has taken “some initial steps in the process of permitting a Class 3, or municipal solid waste landfill in Marlboro County near the Wallace community. DHEC has not issued a draft or final permit for the proposed facility.”

Webber said Monday’s order dismissed the two out of three lawsuits the county has against DHEC regarding the landfill.

A fourth lawsuit was recently filed on behalf of three citizens’ groups: Concerned Citizens for Marlboro County, the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, and Engaging and Guarding Laurens County’s Environment.

Webber said the order tells him the county may have lost the battle, but didn’t lose the war.

He said the council can appeal McLeod’s order and take it to the S.C. Court of Appeals, but said to do so would be futile.

“This particular order, because it dismisses these particular lawsuits at this time, doesn’t make the war lost,” Webber said. “What it does is, get rid of these two lawsuits temporarily.

“My personal opinion is that we’re not going to spend $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 of your money to file this particular appeal,” he said.

Webber said he hadn’t advised council on a specific recommendation as of Thursday’s forum, however.

April McCall of Tatum said she thinks Council is moving in the right direction in terms of fighting the landfill, but wishes council members would’ve been more vocal about their opposition.

“I just feel like, at the beginning they should have been more on top of what was going on and more supportive in letting their constituents know where they were at because we don’t feel like we’ve had any support from them,” she said. “Now we feel a little bit more comfortable and understand the process a little bit better.”

Belvin Sweatt, chairman of Concerned Citizens for Marlboro County, said he would rather see the county not get anything and fight it to the end.

“We don’t care how long it takes,” Sweatt said. “If it takes 10 years, we’re going to keep them out.

“DHEC is a very flawed industry,” he said. “(DHEC’s) motto is ‘We promote and protect the health of the public, and the environment.’ That is a joke. (DHEC) doesn’t care anything about the public or the environment.”

The Solid Waste Management Act passed in 1991 requires major landfills to be 75 miles apart.

And while the megadump 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 the idea.

Marlboro County contended DHEC didn’t assess the need for the megadump as it should have under new regulations and asked the court to void MRR Sandhills’ permit.

The court disagreed in Monday’s order for dismissal.