North Myrtle Beach Times Serving our Community and the Grand Strand for over 50 years
By Ruben Lowman
In a series of decisive votes recently, the Horry County Council effectively halted the Solid Waste Authority’s (HCSWA) multi-million dollar plan to expand the Highway 90 landfill into over 100 acres of protected wetlands.
The conflict pits the HCSWA’s dire warnings of a “trash crisis” against a community that is no longer willing to accept wetland destruction as the cost of doing business, with councilmembers seeminly agreeing for the time being.
Officials with the waste authority had requested upwards of $30 million for the initial phases of an expansion designed to keep the landfill operational through 2051.
Instead, councilmembers voted to strip $300,000 from the authority’s engineering budget and reroute it into a study for two aggressive alternatives: a county-owned rail transfer station and mandatory recycling.
The plans for the transfer station would explore the feasibility of shipping waste out of Horry County entirely using existing rail infrastructure, with officials also investigating an ordinance that would force a reduction in landfill volume by having recycling made mandatory, a move councilmembers claim HCSWA has failed to thoroughly vet.
The proposed expansion sought to fill 102.4 acres of wetlands within the Steritt Swamp. Environmental consultants argued that “mitigation credits”, buying protection for land eight miles away, would offset the damage.
Councilman Gary Loftus was seemingly unimpressed, questioning if the waste authority considered themselves “winners” for only tearing up 100 acres instead of 500.
Adding legal weight to the opposition, public records reveal that two of the proposed landfill cells would sit on land protected by Restrictive Covenants dating back to 1993, legal promises that these areas would remain natural watersheds “forever.”
Councilman Al Allen leveled a direct charge at the region’s rapid growth, arguing that the citizens shouldn’t pay the environmental price for a crisis fueled by new construction. Allen won significant support for a proposal to ban commercial Construction & Demolition (C&D) waste from the landfill.
“The citizens have not created this issue. The developers have,” Allen stated.
If passed, the 160,000 tons of construction debris currently dumped annually would have to be hauled away by the private sector, potentially tripling disposal costs for developers.
HCSWA officials warn that without expansion, the landfill will stop accepting items like couches, mattresses and construction debris by 2029.
County Administrator Barry Spivey warned that transferring trash out of the county introduces new risks, including hundreds of additional trucks on the road and increased exposure during transport.
“If you don’t like expanding the landfill,” Councilmember Tom Anderson challenged, “where do you want to take it?”
The waste authority’s federal permit application with the Army Corps of Engineers is currently in limbo without the necessary engineering funds. One final vote on the county budget is required to cement this redirection of funds.
