Tag: HCSWA.Horry County Solid Waste Authority

Horry County Council Rejects HCSWA Board Requests

Horry County Council members recently rejected two requests from the HCSWA (Horry County Solid Waste Authority) board demonstrating which group holds final say on HCSWA decisions.

Several weeks ago, a group of council members told HCSWA officials to forget any ideas of raising tipping fees at the Hwy 90 landfill in the fiscal year 2016-17 budget.

HCSWA board and staff said a $5-$6 per ton increase in tipping fees was needed to offset a projected deficit in next year’s authority budget.

Council members said ‘Not going to happen.’

More recently, council informed the HCSWA board it supported authority board member Dan Gray remaining on the HCSWA board.

Several months ago, the HCSWA board tried to build a case for removing Gray from the board. The case was built on a foundation of sand and, frankly, was completely without merit.

The comments about Gray’s supposed transgressions, by five board members during a two hour discussion, were petty, personal and totally unprofessional by those involved.

Nevertheless, the HCSWA board voted 5-2 to request county council remove Gray from the HCSWA board.

Again council replied, ‘Not going to happen.’

What these denials mean is this group of Horry County Council members is going to exercise its ultimate right of oversight on HCSWA decisions.

For far too long, a succession of councils meekly allowed HCSWA officials to effectively do what they wanted with regard to waste handling policy without oversight.

This resulted in increased taxes on citizens in the unincorporated areas of the county to support increases in the unincorporated waste collection centers. It resulted in millions of dollars of public money being spent by HCSWA officials on such unnecessary items as lobbying, public relations and advertising and legal expenses to defend questionable decisions.

The ultimate transgression was county ordinance 09-02, which established flow control. This ordinance gave the HCSWA dictatorial power over all waste generated within Horry County while attempting to squeeze the private sector out of waste handling.

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HCSWA Losing Money on Charleston Recyclables

Four months into a contract to process Charleston County recyclables at its material recovery facility, the Horry County Solid Waste Authority is losing money.

When the contract was being negotiated back in the summer and when it was presented to Horry County Council, the Charleston County deal was estimated to bring in $1 million per year in profits to the HCSWA.

Instead, the HCSWA is on track to lose at least that much by the end of the fiscal year.

Over the last two months (October and November) when all costs including trucking are reported, the HCSWA is losing approximately $125,000 per month.

The major reason appears to be false assumptions on how much of the incoming tonnage of recyclables would be sold.

In October and November, the total amount of recyclables arriving at the MRF was 4,386 and 4,238 respectively. The tons sold in those months were 2801 in October and 2,430 in November.

This left unsold recyclable tonnage of 3,383 (39% of the total) over the two months. The assumptions during the summer were that approximately 14.5% of incoming tonnage would be unsold residuals.

Horry County Council told the HCSWA it didn’t want any Charleston County trash to go into the HCSWA landfill. The HCSWA told council it would send an equivalent amount of construction and demolition debris (equal to the Charleston residual amount) out of the county.

According to sources familiar with the processing, approximately 700 total tons of C&D debris was sent to a landfill in Marion County in October and November. This leaves approximately 2,683 tons of residuals unaccounted for.

It is impossible to tell just how much residual tonnage is attributable to Charleston because Charleston County and Horry County recyclables are mixed when they arrive at the MRF.

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Committee to Consider HCSWA Proposed Bylaw Changes

The Horry County Infrastructure and Regulation Committee will consider changes to the Horry County Solid Waste Authority (HCSWA) bylaws at its regular meeting next week.

The committee should pay very close attention to these proposed changes because at least one appears to be in contradiction of county ordinance.

Under Article XIII of the HCSWA bylaws, a change is proposed to read, “Upon dissolution of the Authority all of the Authority’s assets shall be distributed to Horry County, South Carolina in such manner as determined by the Board of Directors of the Authority upon approval by Horry County Council.”

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