Williamsburg County investigates well contamination claims

KINGSTREE — Williamsburg County officials are further investigating claims of water contamination from residents living near a county landfill in Salters.

County officials plan to compile a report through county supervisor Stanley Pasley’s office and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. The report will consist of samples taken from county-operated wells in the area, sent to an independent lab under county contract for testing and again to DHEC for further analysis.

The decision was prompted by the complaints of residents near the landfill who claim their wells were contaminated and demanded the county take action.

Last week, those residents presented a list of five demands to Council at its Oct. 20 meeting insisting on compensation for troubles they claimed resulted from living near the landfill.

During a meeting of the county’s Education, Health and Welfare committee Thursday morning, committee members concluded that most of the claims would not be legally attainable, which included exemptions from “tap-in” fees for new county water lines being run into the area, no monthly charges for county water and reimbursement for declined property values caused by the landfill.

County attorney William Jenkinson III told Council that under stipulations of certain legal agreements for funding, county water projects and supply would prevent the county from waiving “tap-in” fees or granting free water. Committee members also pointed out that such a decision would set a dangerous precedent for the county.

The report will be complied from new samples take from the wells in question, which will be sent to Davis and Brown, a a private company in Florence under contract with the county test the water and wastewater in Williamsburg County. They will then forward their results to DHEC for further analysis. Additional testing of area around the landfill also will be conducted.

On Oct. 8, Council was briefed on solid waste disposal options available after the current Salters landfill closes for good in spring of 2012.

Douglas E. Bryant, director of The Bryant Co., a health and environmental consulting firm, presented Council with a list of 12 possible options for the disposal of the county’s solid waste, making five recommendations from within those choices: that the county dispose solid waste at the Lee County landfill with a “long term agreement with Republic Waste” to transport solid waste for the county; dispose solid waste in the Lee County landfill using Williamsburg County employees to transport the materials; join with other counties in the forming of a “regional landfill”; transport waste to Berkeley, Georgetown or Horry County for solid waste disposal; or build a landfill within Williamsburg County that would serve exclusively the solid waste of the county alone.

There was no discussion at that meeting concerning which option Council would consider.

The Salters landfill is scheduled to close by spring 2011, with half of the landfill shutting down by the end of March 2010. A concern some council members have regards what will be done with the tonnage certificate the county will still have. While there was discussion to research selling the permit to another county, it isn’t known whether Williamsburg County would be legally able to do so.