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Residents, riverkeeper urge halt after Army Corps notice for proposed Horry County wetland landfill
Summary
Speakers at the Horry County Council meeting on Jan. 6 urged the county to pause a permit process after a US Army Corps public notice said an applicant planned to impact about 102.4 acres of wetlands near the Waccamaw River to build landfills; commenters cited risk to flood protection, potential covenant conflicts and asked for meaningful public input.
Speakers at the Horry County Council meeting on Tuesday urged county leaders to halt work tied to a recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public notice that, according to commenters, describes plans to impact roughly 102.4 acres of wetlands near the Waccamaw River to build two landfills.
"It said that [the applicant] intended to impact 102.4 acres of wetlands ... to build 2 landfills," public commenter Amelia Wood told the council, reading from the Corps notice and asking the county to "stop the process until the public can be informed and involved." Wood said the notice did not disclose that one proposed site had an earlier wetland‑fill permit that expressly prohibited landfill development and warned that attempting to undo restrictive covenants has led to successful legal challenges in the past.
Preston Kelly, riverkeeper for the Winyah Rivers Alliance, described the wetlands around Stairds Swamp as "some of the most important natural flood protections left in this part of our county," and said the wetlands can store "between a 1,500,000 gallons of storm water per acre during major rain events." Kelly argued that backfilling more than 100 acres would permanently remove natural infrastructure that slows runoff, filters pollutants, and protects downstream communities along the Waccamaw River.
"Even with liners and current monitoring systems, landfills built in these wetlands have a much higher risk of leachate interacting directly with shallow groundwater or the runoff that will make its way into our Waccamaw River," Kelly said, urging the council to consider alternatives and to require the applicant to demonstrate the "least damaging alternative" required under the Clean Water Act.
Neither the council nor staff announced a formal action on the public record at the meeting. Commenters asked the council to: pause any site approvals, publicly disclose project details supplied to federal and state agencies, and hold a transparent evaluation and public input process before the county takes further steps on solid‑waste planning related to the sites mentioned in the Corps notice.
What happens next: Council closed public input after the registered speakers. Council members did not take a formal vote on the landfill notice during the Jan. 6 meeting; commenters requested county follow‑up, and the council may address the topic in future committee work or hearings.
