South Carolina Landfill is Running Out Of Space
York County’s landfill is running out of space, and state officials might not allow the site to expand before it fills up.
Just two years after the County Council approved a plan that said no construction waste landfills would be needed here until 2013, officials said their landfill has enough capacity to last only a few months.
The county applied for a permit to expand its landfill more than a year ago, but the state Department of Health and Environmental Control hasn’t approved the expansion. The 17-acre addition - on property within the current landfill site - would provide enough space to last five to eight years, county officials say.
“We’d really be in a pinch” if the permit isn’t approved, said Council Chairman Buddy Motz, who until last week thought the current landfill would have enough space for about two years.
DHEC spokesman Thom Berry said the state will decide whether to approve the permit in several weeks, and county officials are confident the agency will do so.
But if someone appeals the permit - and at least one opponent of the expansion says she will - the process could be delayed for months, if not longer.
Should that happen, Berry said, the county could not use the landfill addition unless DHEC grants special permission.
Construction and demolition landfills, often called C&D landfills, accept concrete and other debris from construction sites. Those who unload their waste at the one off S.C. 5 near York pay fees of $25 per ton. In the past five fiscal years, the county has collected $3.5 million in landfill fees.
But the county’s plans for handling this type of waste have sparked controversy in recent years.
Spurring debate
The current waste management plan, adopted in 2007, ignited a firestorm when major changes were made at the last minute.
The changes included a projection that York County, now South Carolina’s fastest-growing county, would need no new construction and demolition landfills until 2013.
The last-minute changes halted plans for two C&D landfills, one on Vernsdale Road in Rock Hill and another on Quarry Road in York. The plan prompted developers of both proposed sites to file lawsuits.
“It’s ironic,” said Mike Griffin, co-owner of Griffin Brothers, the developer of a C&D landfill on Vernsdale Road. “All of a sudden, now they’re out of capacity and they were making claims that they didn’t need any new landfills while they were starting to appeal our permit.”
DHEC awarded Griffin a permit for his landfill in 2007, but the county appealed it. The permit is scheduled to be debated at an administrative law court hearing in Columbia next month.
“It’s an excruciatingly long period of time,” Griffin said of the process. “I would be the poster child of the nightmare of appeal.
“The county appealed mine, and I’m over two years out, and I still haven’t gotten in front of a judge.”
Clock is ticking
County officials are worried about the landfill running out of space during the lengthy appeals process. They hope DHEC will issue an expansion permit and answer residents’ questions so no one appeals the decision.
But Mary Ellen Connolly of York said she will file an appeal if the permit is granted.
Connolly said she’s had problems with the landfill for years. A member of the nonprofit Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, she’s concerned about the impact of the site on the local water supply.
Some people who live near the landfill, she said, don’t drink the water because they find it unclean.
“York County has not been a good neighbor,” she said. “And so the neighborhood has bowed with this resistance because of that.”
In January, Connolly went to a DHEC-organized public hearing about the landfill expansion. She said many people there shared her concerns.
She’s surprised the county has allowed the landfill to nearly reach its capacity, and a permit hasn’t been issued.
“It just seems strange to me that they are that incompetent that they’d let this sneak up on them,” she said.
County officials said they are planning ahead in case the permitting process takes longer than expected. If the landfill becomes full, officials said, the county can direct waste to another C&D landfill in the area or hire Texas-based Waste Management to haul the debris to another landfill.
But they hope they don’t have to use either of those options.
The county’s road maintenance staff already has built the expansion, and officials are just waiting for a green light from the state. And less construction waste has come into the landfill as building has slowed, meaning the site isn’t filling up as fast as it was.
Despite the landfill’s space problems, council members Joe Cox and Curwood Chappell say their opposition to more private C & D landfills remains unchanged.
“I would rather see the government own it so that we can mandate what comes in and what does not come in,” Cox said.
Chappell said he doesn’t want the county to become a dumping ground for waste from other places.
“I will work out a plan to take care of our own debris,” Chappell said, “but I will not tolerate (taking in) … what they want to flush down the toilet.”
By Charles D. Perry - cperry@heraldonline.com
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