The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control would do well to heed the request of the Laurens County Legislative Delegation. We are sure the agency does not need a reminder, but they are among the people who control the purse strings.
Delegates have asked DHEC officials to leave their offices in Columbia and come to Clinton for an in-face meeting about an environmental concern (which was withdrawn by the company on July 20).
This is not unprecedented - DHEC came to Mountville to discuss giant chicken houses; DHEC came to Laurens to discuss pollution clean-up at Ceramtec. Clinton and Laurens County are no strangers to environmental concerns - Clinton had a Dominion natural gas pipeline built on its west side and Laurens County was adversely affected by an oil spill on the Reedy River. Laurens County, just like neighbor Greenwood County, is downstream from heavily polluted Lake Conastee.
Because a new environmental concern has arisen, Laurens County Delegation members have sent DHEC a letter which reminds the agency, “As you know, Laurens County is blessing with great resources, rivers, streams, wildlife, and nature which is rare in this day and age. We all want to protect these resources and our quality of life. Therefore, we request that DHEC and H2O Blue, LLC hold a public meeting in Laurens County to address these concerns and questions.”
The letter was sent July 14, following a hastily called citizens’ meeting July 13 about an environmental concern on Hwy 56. DHEC permitting doesn’t necessary mean the project will succeed (economics will decide that); but the agency permitted the chicken houses, and the agency permitted Clinton’s incinerator at Rosemont Cemetery, so with the state’s “stamp of approval” an industrial wastewater evaporation facility seems likely to join the Laurens County business community. No, the county can’t stop it by denying a business license. No, the county can’t stop it with zoning. The county can barely stop noise - people complain all the time about explosions and war games and dirt bikes - so how could it control odor?
If there’s even going to be any odor. That is one of the things we won’t know until the thing gets built. And accepts its first loads from ... goodness knows where.
