RC Mine LLC, Dorchester County and various arms of our state and local governments have some serious explaining to do.
How has MRC Mine been digging a sand pit strip mine just 50 feet from a playground at Harleyville Elementary School and Harleyville-Ridgeville Middle School building for the past six months?
The dangers to children from this activity should be evident to all. Children exposed to this mining operation face breathing difficulties from the dust. The noise from the operation disrupts classroom activity, creates behavioral issues and can cause headaches. Dirty water, sinkholes and dry wells pose safety hazards. The mining activity stresses the school building itself (more than 60 years old).
I have been monitoring this issue for years because of the significant educational, environmental and public safety ramifications. When the Dorchester County Board of Zoning and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) had a public hearing in 2018 about permitting this sand pit strip mining operation, more than 200 community members and professionals, including parents, clergy, the DD4 school board and a state senator all voiced their strong opposition, according to the SCDHEC transcript of the public hearing from June 28, 2018.
As a result, MRC withdrew its mining application. Democracy worked.
But their interest in the location continued. It resurfaced in December 2022 in a particularly audacious and undemocratic fashion. MRC figured out how to avoid community opposition entirely. How?
First, Dorchester County rezoned the property next to the school, permitting the mining as a “conditional use” rather than a special exception. This meant the county’s board of zoning appeals (BZA) was not required to have a public hearing or review MRC’s request for this now-legal “conditional use.”
Second, MRC signed a contract with the South Carolina Department of Transportation (SCDOT) to mine five acres near the school to provide sand for I-26 construction. SCDOT sand pits, it turns out, are exempt from regulation under the South Carolina Mining Act. This clever move got MRC out of under the oversight of the county and the SCDHEC. The sort of public hearing in 2018 was no longer required and, therefore, never occurred.
Third, MRC owns 87 acres surrounding the school, including the five acres currently permitted for SCDOT mining. However, because of the contract with SCDOT to mine sand for I-26, SCDHEC has withdrawn jurisdictional oversight. Now, MRC wants to mine the entire 87-acre parcel without public hearings.
Fourth, with this legal hustle complete, MRC went before the Dorchester BZA this past February for a variance and permission to mine around the clock on the 87-acre site surrounding the two schools.
Could this open the door for MRC to mine beyond the five acres exempted by the SCDOT contract? I would like to know if MRC is staying within the SCDOT contracted five acres, especially considering the initial mining application covered more than 40 acres of the 87-acre parcel. What about the neighboring residents who have complained of noise they will sometimes hear late at night and of dust? I have driven by and seen dust clouds from the site during school hours.
The state and county are now hiding behind the “legality” of this MRC maneuver, the result of which has been to cut the public out of these decisions and damage the health and welfare of the community’s children.
But all is not yet lost. Here is what you can do now:Attend the March 27, 2024, hearing of the BZA at the county council chambers in St. George.
Contact Sen. Larry Grooms, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, at 803-212-6400.
Call 803-898-1368 to voice your concerns to SCDHEC’s Bureau of Land and Waste Management, Division of Solid Waste Management.
Ask Faith Rivers James, the executive director of the Coastal Conservation League, to intervene. The group can be reached at 843-723-8035.
Fill out this petition to share comments on the project: https://forms.gle/t7RU4f1pCkNppW5N6The risk to our children’s health and safety in St. George is too significant to allow this undemocratic process to play out. We can stop continued sand pit mining only if we flex our muscles as citizens. Otherwise, those who would destroy the health of our children and the quality of our environment for profit will get their way.
