Trash study raises concerns

SUMMERVILLE — A consultant's math won't trash Dorchester County, its outraged residents vow.

After nearly a week fielding phone calls and e-mails from residents, County Council is firing off a letter to Charleston County saying, in the words of Chairman Jamie Feltner, "Dorchester County does not want to be the trash collector and the trash dump for this region."

Charleston County's trash isn't going anywhere soon, officials there said.

And the regional solution that is being sought is more likely to be found in a proposed regional landfill in Berkeley County.

What happened is a consultant, hired by Charleston County to make recommendations about its trash incinerator, made a calculation of what it would cost the county to ship its waste to the nearest private landfill, if its Bees Ferry Landfill were to fill up. The nearest private landfill, it turns out, is Oak Ridge, in the Dorchester community.

When residents who live near the landfill heard that, they screamed no. Concerns included the impact of an estimated 44,000 more trucks on the well-worn, narrow U.S. Highway 78 — the area's main thoroughfare; and the environmental consequences of dumping that many more loads into Oak Ridge.

"This is a disaster waiting to happen," said Joe Peal, a resident and Town Council member in Ridgeville, near the Oak Ridge landfill. It made for what Feltner characterized earlier this week as a busy weekend.

The Oak Ridge landfill, run by Waste Management, is free to take the trash — there's nothing Dorchester County can do to legally stop it.

Charleston County Council members are looking for more alternatives and a three-county solution to the problem of what to do with its trash if it closes the incinerator when the contract runs out at the end of the year, Councilman Vic Rawl said.

He said he thinks the county asked the consultant the wrong questions and didn't get the right answers. "I think we've just scratched the surface," he said.

Feltner said he's willing to accept that. But he still thinks it's important Charleston County knows where Dorchester County stands. The letter is in the mail.

Reach Bo Petersen at 843-937-5744 or bpetersen@postandcourier.com.