Horry’s landfill is expanding, but you can have a say in the process. Here’s how.

Could a major expansion to Horry County’s landfill make flooding worse for residents in Conway and along the S.C. 90 corridor?

Highway 90 resident Amelia Wood said that was one of her concerns as the agency prepares to start the project, which will add dozens of acres and hundreds of thousands of tons of waste to the landfill.

“I think it (could affect) anything downstream from the landfill which would include Conway,” Wood said. “When wetlands are filled in and there are less permeable surfaces, that’s what happens, flooding gets worse.”

Wood and other Horry County residents, though, will have a voice in the project as the Solid Waste Authority moves forward.

That’s due to a stipulation in state law that allows residents to force public agencies like the Solid Waste Authority into negotiations over a particular project, a process called a “Facility Issues Negotiation” process, or FIN. Leaders at the SWA elected to initiate the FIN process themselves, meaning they’ve already agreed to negotiate with the public once a citizen committee is put together.

That committee will come together in the coming weeks.

At an initial meeting Friday afternoon, a consultant for the SWA outlined how the public will be involved in the expansion process:

• Jan. 31, 2022: The SWA will host a public meeting at the Horry County Government and Justice Center in Conway where members of the public will be able to form a 10-person citizen committee. Eighty percent of the committee must be either registered voters in Horry County or land owners in Horry County.

• The citizen committee will then meet three times throughout February, on Feb. 7, Feb. 15 and Feb. 21. All meetings will be at 4 p.m. and held at the SWA administration building along S.C. 90.

• Once the citizen committee and SWA meet three times, the two groups will then hold a general public hearing, which is scheduled for March 23 at 4 p.m. at the SWA building.

Following the public hearing, the SWA and citizen committee will put the results of their negotiations in writing and send them to the state Dept. of Health and Environmental Control, which will help enforce the agreement. DHEC will then finalize the SWA’s permit for its landfill expansion, allowing the agency to construct the project.

The SWA’s expansion will be significant, adding nearly 43 new acres of waste “piggybacked” on existing mounds of waste. Such an expansion could add up to 500,000 tons of waste per year to the landfill, which will have its longevity extended to 2051, when it will likely be forced to close.

The SWA is currently permitted to fill an existing 20 acres of the landfill, giving it longevity until 2043.

The expansion, dubbed “piggyback phase three” will be a constructed expansion meaning the SWA will install lining and other filtration infrastructure before it begins piling on waste. Water that drains through waste mounds, for example, is eventually collected and sent to a water treatment plant. The SWA collects methane gas generated from its waste, too, and converts it into electricity.

At the public meeting Friday, SWA Director Danny Knight said the agency elected to go through the FIN process because it wanted to engage with the community. He noted that the agency made a similar decision when it pursued permits for its second piggyback expansion several years ago, and that the SWA built turning lanes along S.C. 90 as part of that process.

“I like to say that the most important word in FIN is “N” which is negotiation,” Knight said. “And we’re going to be very open from our end on lots of issues.”

Bo Ives, the chairman of the SWA’s board of directors, echoed the sentiment.

“The board is very interested in the community’s comments,” he said. “We look forward to the community’s response on that.”

Residents like Wood, though, are worried that the agency hasn’t done enough to date to advertise the FIN process, or the fact that its pursuing such a significant expansion. She said she’s glad the agency is electing to negotiate with the public, but that such an exercise is moot if people don’t know about it.

“There wasn’t a lot of public notice about this whole thing,” she said, noting that the state law outlining the FIN process is 30 years old and should be updated to increase transparency.

In addition to worrying about flooding caused by the landfill — Wood noted that the SWA has filled in wetlands to construct what it’s built so far — she said she’d like to see the agency become more transparent to the public. She said she shouldn’t have to always rely on the Freedom of Information Act to get information about the agency and the landfill it operates.

“I want to be able to ask questions and get answers without paying for it,” she said.