Shift to landfills creates dilemma

Private companies must find alternative disposal method

Private haulers and contractors along with several cities and towns are scrambling to figure out how they'll get rid of trash in the future.

Charleston County is reshuffling how waste is disposed with its plans to start burying all household waste in dumps instead of burning trash at the incinerator plant in North Charleston.

Subsequently, private haulers and contractors soon won't be allowed to dump construction debris at county landfills so that the dumps will last longer.

While western and southern areas of the county could be impacted by changes in construction waste disposal, areas east of the Cooper also could feel a pinch in disposing of everyday household trash.

The extent of the impact is yet to be seen. Communication about future options plays a role, too.

Every county resident will be affected.

The pressure is on

Russ Perkins has four months to figure out what his waste removal company, Nature's Calling, will do when Charleston County stops accepting construction and demolition debris after June 30.

The news blindsided Perkins. "I didn't know anything about it until it came out in the paper," he said. His company supplies portable restrooms in addition to hauling waste.

Perkins opened Nature's Calling in 1996. His company serves more than 1,000 customers.

In July, when the county's Bees Ferry landfill stops accepting construction waste, Perkins figures he'll have to pay more for gasoline and to maintain his fleet because workers will have to go elsewhere. His payroll also might increase.

"It's going to be a lot," Perkins said. "It's actually going to end up costing whoever is the homeowner building a new house."

Last year, the Bees Ferry landfill took in approximately 85,000 tons of construction trash.

Perkins and Brian Wintjen, general manager of Nature's Calling, say construction firms doing projects in West Ashley and on the sea islands likely would have to pay haulers more because the waste would have to be carried

farther away.

"Everything that we have west and south of Charleston that was going to Bees Ferry, who knows where it's going to go?" Wintjen said. "It's probably going to double the time to get it there. ... We're going to have to increase charges for our services, which trickles down to everybody."

Wintjen said they currently pay $3.25 a gallon to fill up the 80-gallon tanks on their trucks. The trucks get three to four miles a gallon, he said.

Private haulers could drop off at the Fennell Container Co. operation in North Charleston but have limited other options — either Dorchester County's Oakridge landfill or Berkeley County's dump in Moncks Corner.

Bees Ferry is the most expensive dump, charging $30 a ton, but Perkins and Wintjen argue that its proximity and the fact that it is well-maintained make up for the price.

Perkins said Fennell Container "would pretty much have a monopoly, being the closest one," when the county's landfill closes. Fennell Container recently increased its rates by $1. Nature's Calling now pays $28 a ton.

Phillip Ford, executive vice president of the Charleston Trident Homebuilders Association, said he hasn't heard an uproar about the county no longer taking construction waste after June, but "that definitely will impact the cost of doing business."

"Maybe word's not out there yet. There could be some concerns," Ford said.

'Time is money'

Charleston County Council decided last month to stop using its incinerator, built in the late 1980s. County staff crunched the numbers and found it to be the least costly option.

The incinerator, located on Shipyard Creek Road, converts 230,000 tons of trash a year, or 80 percent of the county's garbage, into smoke, steam and a thick black ash. Instead of burning trash, the county wants to bury all of its garbage at the Bees Ferry Road landfill and a future dump near Adams Run, which should open by 2024.

Every household is charged $99 for solid waste disposal. The county charges rental and commercial property owners more.

Residents living east of the Cooper in Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island might pay additional costs in municipal taxes, because those areas will have to deal with longer rides, and subsequently higher gas costs and more wear and tear on trucks.

Donnie Pitts, Isle of Palms public works director, estimated the switch to strictly dumping at Bees Ferry would triple his annual costs because of more manpower and farther distances.

Mount Pleasant is paying a consultant $8,000 to study the impact of the incinerator's closing. Officials from the three island governments are hoping the study might offer feasible options for them to collaborate on a transfer station, a centrally located place where municipalities can dump garbage and larger trucks can haul it to the landfills in western Charleston County.

Isle of Palms City Administrator Linda Tucker said they weren't completely caught off guard. "We heard rumblings that this might be coming," she said. "Sure, would we've liked for there to have been more planning time? Yes."

While the county does plan to eventually build a transfer station, county officials haven't figured out where it would go.

"We don't want to duplicate efforts," Tucker said. "But at the same time we don't want to wait on something and then sort of be caught in the lurch. ... Time is money."

Reach Tenisha Waldo at twaldo@postandcourier.com or 937-5744.