240 tons of trash and a Hilton Head ‘nightmare:’ Dump permit hearing set for Thursday
A public hearing on plans for a solid waste transfer site on Hilton Head Island’s north end is set for Thursday afternoon.
Community outrage over the project by Arbor Nature has created the need for two public hearing sessions, scheduled to take place back to back. The hearings are opportunities for the public to comment for the record to the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the agency responsible for issuing the permit.
The hearings come after two question-and-answer sessions in which nearby residents blasted the trash dump permit as inappropriate for the island and potentially harmful to the environment.
Opponents of the project also take issue with DHEC’s failure to consider traffic and damage to property values.
“Our eco-friendly island would tragically suffer from this demolition site with its trucking mania,” Port Royal Plantation resident Pauline Leland told The Island Packet. “The amount of trucks that will be going back and forth on the road will be constant, not to mention that so much stuff will be left there. ... It would be a nightmare for the island.”
Arbor Nature, which relocated its tree grinding operation to 26 Summit Drive near the airport in 2020 after settling a lawsuit with the Town of Hilton Head Island, applied for the trash dump permit in March.
The proposed trash dump would be next to the company’s tree grinding process, and owner Adam Congrove told The Island Packet in September that it would cut down on truck traffic across the bridges.
“You can fit 10 trucks worth of garbage into one truck (from the transfer station). Rather than leaving the island 10 times, you only leave the island once,” he said.
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About the permit
A solid waste transfer station permit is different from a landfill permit in that it allows waste and debris to be held temporarily at the site instead of permanently stored there.
Up to 240 tons of trash and debris can be on the site at any single time, according to DHEC.
The solid waste transfer station will not be publicly accessible. It is not a town trash dump, but for use by construction and demolition companies to dispose of waste while they’re completing projects on the island.
If the permit is approved, up to 10 trucks per hour would take about six minutes to enter the site and deposit construction and demolition materials at Arbor Nature’s site before heading back toward Dillon Road, according to the permit application.
The four-acre site is zoned by the Town of Hilton Head Island for light industrial uses. Those allowances include waste-related uses, but not a waste treatment plant.
A solid waste transfer station is where solid waste is taken from trucks and collection vehicles and placed in other transportation units to be moved to another solid waste management facility. The nearest waste management facility is Hickory Hill landfill in Ridgeland.
Among the items that would be accepted at the waste transfer station:
Construction and demolition debris including asphalt, concrete and bricks
Debris from land-clearing, including brush and tree branches
Dead animals, which Congrove said his company would dispose of within 24 hours
Lead-based paint
Asbestos-containing materials, which Congrove said his company is unlikely to accept because nearby landfills do not accept them either
Shingles
Glass
Box springs and mattresses
Arbor Nature would also be allowed to recycle some materials on the site.
How to attend Arbor Nature public hearing
On Thursday, DHEC will hold two virtual public hearings on the issue: One at noon and one at 6:30 p.m.
The hearings are a formal opportunity for comments to be made verbally and transcribed by a court reporter. The comments will be included in DHEC’s official record of the permit decision.
Anyone who plans to participate in the public hearing should complete the online registration form available on DHEC’s Arbor Nature webpage, and commenters can indicate a preferred time to speak.
The afternoon hearing will comprise five one-hour segments of comments. Each afternoon segment may be closed after the final pre-registered commenter has spoken. The afternoon session will conclude at 5 p.m.
During the evening session, preregistered commenters will be called upon first, followed by those who did not pre-register. The evening session will conclude after every commenter speaks.
The call-in number, an updated prerecorded presentation, and the approximate order of pre-registered commenters for both sessions will be posted on DHEC’s webpage prior to the public hearing.
DHEC will also take written comments on the permit application until Nov. 5. Those should be submitted to Justin Koon, Section Manager of DHEC’s Bureau of Land and Waste Management at 2600 Bull Street Columbia, SC 29201 or to koonjt@dhec.sc.gov
Have more questions?
See The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette guide to the Arbor Nature permit on the newspapers’ websites.
A reporter is following the permitting process, public hearing and other Arbor Nature developments.
If you have questions or comments on the permit or Arbor Nature, use the form below to submit them. A reporter may contact you about your submission, but nothing you submit will be used without your explicit consent.
This story was originally published October 19, 2020 at 2:05 PM.
