SC used as landfill dump for East Coast

COLUMBIA -- Three years ago, Tom Wood, a widower, former teacher and Navy veteran, moved to a remote spot in Marlboro County, hoping to live out his days in peace.

Now, he's smack in the middle of a fight over what would be one of the state's largest landfills ever -- just a few miles from his home.

The retiree is one of hundreds of people across the state fighting a little-noticed trend: the creation of giant landfills for household waste, much of it from other states.

Huge landfills are on the rise in South Carolina. The nation's three largest garbage haulers -- Waste Management Inc., Republic Services and Allied Waste Industries -- have moved in, often under other names.

The legislature never approved a policy allowing the state to become a garbage mecca. But with the approval of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, South Carolina has become an East Coast destination dump.

The state buries far more garbage than it produces and is reserving space for even more.

South Carolina last year buried 4.8 million tons of its own garbage and an additional 1.7 million tons of out-of-state garbage. It could have buried more: DHEC has authorized state landfills to accept 9.9 million tons per year.

But if garbage landfills were to grow to the maximum allowed by law, they could bury 42 million tons per year -- almost nine times what South Carolinians now put in the ground.

The state doesn't earmark specific space for S.C. garbage. But landfill representatives say their excess capacity, authorized by DHEC, is for the state's future.

The companies' futures also are assured. They make millions importing other states' household garbage. And if built, three landfills proposed in the past two years -- in Marlboro, Williamsburg and Cherokee counties -- could considerably increase what South Carolina buries.

"We are the pay toilet of the nation," said Sen. John Courson, R-Richland. He said the growing acceptance of out-of-state garbage reminds him of how the state once embraced the nation's radioactive and hazardous waste.

The "toilet" is expanding.

Marlboro's "mega-dump" -- as critics call it -- would take in up to 1.4 million tons of garbage a year, much by rail from out of state.

Landfill industry defenders point out that South Carolina's regulations have their limits, that aside from Cherokee and Marlboro, only one more large landfill can be built from scratch under newer, 2000 regulations.

The catch? The regulations, written by DHEC and approved by state lawmakers on DHEC's recommendation, also allow existing landfills to expand. That means small dumps can be swapped for giant landfills.

COMING IN FROM ELSEWHERE

The companies here are from Arizona, Texas and Florida.

MRR is the latest arrival, proposing the landfills in Marlboro and Williamsburg counties after North Carolina passed laws that make it difficult to start new landfills in that state.

DHEC officials have not formally informed lawmakers of the influx of out-of-state trash, and there has been no broad discussion of whether the trend is good policy.

Few foresaw the trend.

In 1991, the legislature passed a solid waste and recycling law designed to limit garbage buried, by encouraging cities and counties to close their outdated landfills in favor of fewer, modern regional ones. But neither the 1991 law nor DHEC's supporting regulations limited the number of landfills or the total amount buried each year in the state.

Large landfills sprang up, the size of which South Carolina had never seen. With them came out-of-state trash.

Today, the state is one of only 11 that import at least 1 million tons of garbage each year from other states, according to the Congressional Research Service.

And the amount is increasing.

In 2001, the state imported 579,000 tons; in 2003, 1.2 million tons; in 2005, 1.5 million tons; in 2007, 1.7 million tons, according to DHEC and the Congressional Research Service.

DHEC in 2000 helped write new regulations aimed at limiting the number of landfills. That's why only one more new landfill can be built from scratch after these:

• In Cherokee County, Waste Management, of Texas, wants to build a new mega-landfill it said would replace its large landfill in Spartanburg County. The company has not formally filed for a DHEC permit.

• MRR's proposal to take over Williamsburg County's landfill was scuttled in October, at least for now, after hundreds of residents protested at a County Council meeting. DHEC has given preliminary approval.

• The Marlboro County proposal also is from MRR. The county is in one of the two corners of the state where a new landfill can be built, without a swap.

SMILING FACES?

South Carolina's motto is "Smiling Faces. Beautiful Places."

But critics say, more and more, the state's face is pocked with landfills.

Garbage now isn't buried under ground, as many people might think. It's "buried," or stacked, above ground, creating large mounds of trash with fresh dirt covering each day's deposits.

There is no limit on how high garbage can be stacked as long as a landfill's base is broad enough. Trash mountains in Lee and Spartanburg counties now are among the tallest artificial structures there. People give them names, such as "Mount Trashmore."

In South Carolina, the trash tapestry involves DHEC, money, pollution and politics:

• Nine other states now use South Carolina as a garbage dump. Last year, those states were New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Virginia. North Carolina, the leader, dumped 628,262 tons of trash here, followed by Massachusetts (366,054), New York (417,196), and New Jersey (168,215). In those states, dumping fees are high. It's cheaper to ship garbage to South Carolina.

• Waste companies hire the state's top legal and political talent to represent their interests.

Waste Management is represented by both the McNair Law Firm, founded by the late Gov. Robert McNair, and the politically connected Nexsen Pruet firm, whose attorneys include Columbia Mayor Bob Coble, former DHEC attorney Tommy Lavender and former state Department of Revenue director Burnet Maybank. The company also has hired Clemson University trustee and former Lt. Gov. Bob Peeler to help out in Cherokee County.

MRR is being helped by former Gov. Jim Hodges' consulting firm. It also has retained the lobbying firm run by the well-connected Richard Davis of Columbia.

• South Carolina's poorer, rural counties with slim tax bases, such as Williamsburg, sometimes welcome the trash companies, who give the counties free garbage service and "host fees" for accepting out-of-state waste. Lee, Union and Anderson counties partner with large landfill operators. Even well-off counties such as Spartanburg and Richland have "host-fee" arrangements with big waste firms.

• Landfills cause pollution, economic blight and loss of land for development, critics charge. They say land values decline near landfills because no one wants to live there, and stench and noise from hundreds of garbage trucks hurt quality of life and property values.