Marlboro, Williamsburg county residents protest ‘megadumps’

COLUMBIA — Residents from Marlboro and Williamsburg counties traveled to the Statehouse to join fellow residents from across the state to protest the growing number of so-called “megadumps” in South Carolina.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control allows waste companies to bring in garbage from places like Atlanta and Baltimore to be buried in the Palmetto state.

Three major new landfills have been proposed for Marlboro, Williamsburg and Cherokee counties, according to DHEC.

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.

Because DHEC can authorize where landfills are built, many counties, including those in the Pee Dee, are turning to their state lawmakers to try and put a stop to the new dumping grounds.

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

At the rally, state Sen. Phil Leventis of Sumter offered his support to try and stop the new dumps from being constructed.

“Why can’t the people of Washington, New York, Baltimore and Atlanta and wherever this waste is coming from ... why can’t they take care of it there?” Leventis said. “Once the waste is in place, it will be there forever.”

Leventis said the megadump in Lee County was so popular, a railyard had been constructed to bring in trainloads of out-of-state garbage.

Paulie McCalpin, a member of the Concerned Citizens of Marlboro County, said no dumps need to be built if the state would focus more on recycling efforts.

“I imagined the day would come when our state would be labeled the pay toilet of the nation,” McCalpin said. “It is demeaning that other people consider us the landfill state.”

The rally was sponsored by a group called Citizens for Marlboro County, a chapter of the Blue Ridge Defense League, a nonprofit environmental group.

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