Residents speak out at Nesmith Landfill community forum
By Clayton Stairs
cstairs@gtowntimes.com
Pleas from Nesmith residents for officials to find another location for a proposed landfill in Williamsburg County once again fell on deaf ears.
More than 200 people came out to Nesmith Baptist Church recently for a community forum meeting called by the Williamsburg County Council about what many have called a "megadump." This large landfill is proposed for a pristine woodland and wetlands area known as the Big Woods in Nesmith, just six miles west of the Georgetown County line.
This was the second time the public could ask questions and express their concerns to Council about this issue. Their first opportunity was the Sept. 16 public hearing, held before a unanimous vote of Council passed second reading of the ordinance to approve the contract agreement.
That agreement is between Williamsburg County and a private landfill company named Material Recovery and Reclamation (MRR) Williamsburg, LLC, to nail down the location of the landfill. The 600-acre plot of land in Nesmith is now owned by International Paper Company.
A final public hearing will be held Thursday, Oct. 2, at 6 p.m. at Kingstree Town Hall, before Council votes on the third reading of the ordinance. Unfortunately, that hearing may be of little help to residents and others who oppose a landfill in Nesmith.
'Done deal?'
With only one more public hearing and one more vote by Williamsburg County Council to set in motion plans for the landfill there, Nesmith residents hoped to sway Council members to vote against the landfill in that location. However, it eventually became clear last Thursday that votes by Council for the third reading of the ordinance have already been locked.
Williamsburg County Councilman Sam Drucker addressed the attendees of the forum after several people had stood up and asked if this was a "done deal?" and what, if anything, the public could do to stop this. He told everyone in the church that he and the other members of Council had already made up their minds.
Drucker even mentioned that threatening e-mails or letters would not change his or the other Council member's minds.
"We feel that our only option is to partner with (MRR) to build a landfill in Williamsburg County," Drucker said on behalf of the Council members. "There was no way we could decide on our own where the landfill should go, so we let the experts from MRR decide."
Nesmith, he said, was the place with the lowest environmental impact, according to a battery of studies conducted by MRR. He went on to say Council members agreed to "go with what they chose."
While Council had input on the criteria used for choosing the site, Drucker said MRR determined that the Nesmith site was the best out of 30 sites considered for the landfill in the county.
Residents who spoke during the public forum meeting suggested that the reason this site was chosen might have more to do with nearby train tracks (for convenient transport of garbage from other counties and states) and the socio-economic level of the people who live in that area.
"City boys are always trying to take advantage of country boys," one man said when it was his turn to speak. "40 acres and a mule never worked and this landfill will not work either."
'No way!'
Similar to the prior meeting, many people of different races and backgrounds in the packed church repeatedly expressed their disapproval of the proposed landfill to members of Council. Some even waved signs that read, "No Landfill in Nesmith" and called out, "No" and "No way!" during the three-and-a-half hour meeting.
Instead of going along with the preconceived format for the meeting, the people present demanded to be heard in front of everyone in the church sanctuary. With booths set up in the church's founder's hall, Williamsburg County Supervisor Stanley Pasley proclaimed that this would be an "informational meeting" during which people could ask one-on-one technical questions of officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) and MRR.
After several failed attempts by Pasley to continue the meeting as he and other officials planned it, the meeting progressed according to the people's wishes.
Nelson Chandler, a lawyer with Parker, Poe, Adams and Bernstein in Charleston, attended the meeting as a concerned citizen, since his family owns property just two miles from Nesmith. He says the number of people who came together to fight this proposal has been impressive.
"I was pleased with the strong turnout from the community which appeared entirely united in opposition to the proposed megadump," Chandler said. "This proposed facility -- which could be permitted for as much as 2.3 million tons of trash per year-- is not merely a replacement for the Salters Landfill -- which is only permitted for 35,000 tons of trash per year."
Generations to come
Since plans for the Nesmith landfill limit the maximum amount of trash per year to one million tons for the first year and 1.8 million for the following five years, Chandler says this megadump would be the biggest in South Carolina.
"Based on what I can tell, there is only one facility in this state that accepted 1 million tons in the fiscal year 2007," Chandler said. "That was the Lee County landfill."
Many local residents fear that a dump of this magnitude in Nesmith will affect them and their families for generations to come. Gail White owns property just six miles from the proposed landfill site.
She says everyone who enjoys unpolluted waterways in Williamsburg County, as well as neighboring counties like Georgetown County, should be concerned.
"We have land across the river that we plan on leaving our daughter and I want her to be able to sell that land if she chooses to do so," White said. "My son also has a beautiful home on the Black River and I don't want to think that one day he won't be able to eat the fish he catches there."
To learn more about "megadumps" and reasons why landfills may be dangerous to the public, visit www.no-megadump.com, a Web site started by residents of Marlboro County who in 2004 successfully opposed a large landfill in that area.
For contact information for each of the Williamsburg County Council members, visit www.williamsburgsc.com/council.html.
: 10/4/2008
First of all the land in not owned by IP...the land is owned by Resource Management Servies, aka Red Mountain Timber, which is a fly by night operation with inept management who has evidently partnered with MMR. If this landfill comes into being the land areas around the Nesmith community will be ruined for eternity. Land values will plummet and the pollutants coming from this landfill will cause harm to the health community for generations afterwards. I suggest the good people of the Nesmith area ban together as one voice, contact the parties in Marlboro County who in 2004 opposed and stopped a mega dump from coming to thier community. It can be done despite the actions of Williamsburg County officals.
: 10/2/2008
We must change our County goverment by first replaceing councilman W.B. Wilson then supervisor Stanly pasley and then the rest of the clowns shall follow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!