No surprise here

McKown's Mountain Road was very quiet Friday afternoon. But residents expect that to change soon enough once Duke Energy starts construction on a nuclear power plant in the region. Such construction activity is likely to draw hundreds of workers and vehicles at a time. Waste Management Inc. trucks would be traveling the same roadways if the Texas-based company is allowed to proceed with plans to construct a landfill and recycling center in the same region. If anything was clear about Waste Management Inc.'s plans to construct a landfill and recycling center near McKown's Mountain it's that the Texas company is likely going to have a very hard time selling its plans to a community already wary of having a nuclear power plant nearby.

Company officials had conceded they expected apprehension. What many residents had to offer, however, was rejection.

"I don't want that down here," said Marshall Mullinax, an 81-year-old Sardis Road resident who has called the McKown's Mountain area his home for his entire life. "I've got enough trouble now trying to get up and down here."

His sentiments were the norm, not the exception, during an informal poll of residents of the region on Friday. While word of Waste Management's proposed plans were just trickling into the McKown's Mountain community on Friday afternoon, some residents already were expressing displeasure with Duke Energy's plans for a nuclear power plant in their community and many said a landfill would only add to their worries about increasing traffic and an altered landscape in what was once a very quiet and peaceful corner of the county.

"When they start (construction of) that power plant there will probably be 2,000 people down there," said Charlie Painter, another Sardis Road resident. Still, he said, "I think I'd rather have the nuke plant than a waste dump."

Barbara Beatrice, who lives in nearby Wilkinsville, offered, "I'd tell them no, too."

A resident of McKown's Mountain Road, who didn't want to be identified out of concerns about how her criticisms of big companies might be perceived, said traffic from construction crews at the Duke plant already is a problem and the real construction work hasn't even begun yet.

"Why can't they find a quieter place than the little neighborhood we've lived in all our life?"

While traffic on McKown's Mountain was very light on Friday, the woman said speeding dump trucks have caused her great concern and she fears it's only going to get far worse.

Out of fear for the safety of her family, her grandchildren aren't allowed to play in her front yard located along the 55 mph, two lane roadway.

"We done went through it one time," she said, "and I know what it's going to be like."

Duke had started construction of a power plant many years ago but the project was abandoned.

Almost every resident spoken to Friday recalled with clarity the day a young girl was struck and killed on McKown's Mountain road by a construction vehicle from the first Duke project. News that a second project in their neighborhood, a landfill and recycling operation that could add 200 to 300 more trucks a day to their roadways, wasn't deemed great news.

"I may not live long enough to see it," one woman said, "But as long as I'm living I'm against it."

Officials from Waste Management said they visited with some residents on Patrick Road, which is where the planned entrance of the facility would be located, and they planned to send mailings out to residents in the community in coming days to introduce the company and its proposals.

A map of the 1,550 acre parcel that's on display at a Waste Management information office being set up at 112 Willis Plaza in Gaffney shows most residents would be well isolated from the actual landfill area designed into the plans.

About seven homes on Patrick Road, however, are located within the boundaries of the massive parcel Waste Management is acquiring for the project. Randall Essick, senior manager for business development with Waste Management, said they did discuss the company's willingness to help the Patrick Road residents relocate if they so desired.

"We would be willing to purchase their homes and help them relocate to another place," he said. "But it's strictly their choice. We want to be good corporate partners and help if they don't want to live close to the facility."