The following letter was sent by Aiken resident Lisa Smith to Justin Koon of the South Carolina Department of Environmental Control regarding the proposed Landfill in Bath, SC. Others interested in writing to Mr. Koon may do so at this address below or via email to koonjt@dhec.sc.gov

Mr. Justin Koon, Manager 
DHEC Solid Waste and Monitoring Section
Division of Mining and Solid Waste Management
Bureau of Land and Waste Management

Thank you, Mr. Koon for allowing correspondence, as per our phone conversation on May 2, 2024, regarding the proposed Rabbit Hill Class Two privately-owned for-profit landfill.  I am aware that DHEC has held public meetings, and an open comment period, which ended on April 13, 2024, and that you are now in the process of compiling and interpreting comments, so, do appreciate you allowing the submission of more information.

The community is just beginning to become informed about the proposed landfill. 

In the last 14 days 210 signatures have been recorded on a petition that addresses citizens’ concerns.  The petition is gaining momentum.  114 signatures have been recorded online, and 96 pen and ink signatures have been recorded on petitions circulated in neighborhoods surrounding the proposed landfill.  (Please see the link below to read the petition).  

In the last two weeks, 121 concerned citizens have formed a social media group with 80 informative posts.  

An area resident, a young mother whose children attend Jefferson Elementary School, spoke very effectively about her concerns when interviewed by TV news in a report that was aired four times.  (Please see link below).

A local online investigative journal published an in-depth article, the first in a series, about the environmental impact of decades of dumping in the Graniteville, SC area.  (Please read attached article).

The community is becoming aware, informed, and growingly concerned.  

We would like DHEC to more fully explain “Determination of Need and Consistency” and the possible “exception to” and “non-required” status of each.  

We would also like DHEC to fully consider citizens’ concerns such as:

• Proximity to 526 students and the staff and faculty at the historic Jefferson Elementary School.
• Proximity to long established neighborhoods and to proposed new housing construction. 
• The existing, now closed, previously unregulated county dump site which is producing quantities of methane gas and may be affecting groundwater which will be adjacent and even possibly adjoining (see photo below).
• The pristine natural wooded areas that make up a large part of the 546-acre proposed landfill site. 
• The important underappreciated historic sites in this area.
• Two Class Two landfills very near the proposed site, one 4.7 miles, one 8.9 miles away. 
• The existing limitations of ingress and egress based on inadequate existing roads that currently allow access to the school and neighborhoods and will become hazardous with the potential daily use of hundreds of dump trucks.
• The risk of fire in proximity to the methane producing existing county dump, the neighborhoods, woods and school complicated further with school traffic restricting access to emergency vehicles
• The existence of potential alternatives such as the Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority 1400-acre Class Three Landfill with a projected lifespan of 120 years, and Aiken County’s 205-acre Barden Construction/Debris landfill, as well as 245 additional acres West of Barden also belonging to the County.

This proposed landfill may be more convenient and more profitable to the applicants, but those are not reasons to circumvent procedures that are in place to protect citizens, neighborhoods, and the environment.  It’s time to consider the real costs of this proposal.

Sincerely,
Lisa Smith
Advocates for Aiken, President
Aiken Equestrian Alliance, President
Do it Right Alliance, Member