Land could be put to better use

Tuesday night Waste Management made their presentation to the County Council for the proposed landfill in the McKown's Mountain area. It was very informative to see just how WM could try to make this idea "appealing" to the residents of Cherokee County.

Anyone knows that before a professional sports team, whether it is football or basketball, signs a contract with a potential player, they review that person's past performance — since, as we all know, the best indicator of future performance, is past performance. This is a very simple and common sense procedure. With that in mind, I looked up Waste Management's past performance, so we could see just what type of behavior to expect in the future. Their "record" is a matter of public record, and has been validated in states ranging from Minnesota to Florida, from the West Coast to the East Coast, and everywhere in between. They have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in every state they have built landfills, for violations of contaminating the groundwater which supplies drinking water for numerous communities, violations for illegally burying radioactive medical waste, and so on. Anyone who lives in Cherokee County owes it to themselves and their family to get on their computer and check this out for themselves — if you want to see what happened to Pottstown, PA, for instance, go to www.acereport.org/wm62103.html, it will knock your socks off!

Or, "Google" the subject: "Waste Management Landfill Lawsuits," and see what comes up — it's a real eye-opener, 254,000 sites for information. For those who don't have a computer of their own, you can go to the library and use one of their computers for free (all you need is a library card).

The thing that concerns me so much is the fact that Cherokee County is the smallest county in South Carolina, and Waste Management wants to "use up" 1550 acres of our precious land-area — they mentioned at the meeting Tuesday night that they would probably operate the landfill for 30 years, and then move on. I ask, wouldn't it be better to have some other industry buy this property that will contribute something more stable to the local economy, an industry that will be in business for longer than 30 years, and not leave us with a mountain of garbage that will be higher than the actual McKown's Mountain itself? There are plenty of industries out there that would be a lot more beneficial to Cherokee County over the long term than a garbage dump — why sell our land out so cheaply for a "short-term" project with a handful of jobs?

I ask you, what if the land that Timken owns, or Stouffer's owns, had been sold for use as a garbage dump, rather than to Timken or Stouffer's? Companies like Stouffer's and Timken offer so much to our county — for the long term — Timken has been in operation for 38 years, and Stouffer's for 28 years, and have contributed so much to our economy. They employee thousands of people — compare that to the handful that Waste Management is offering. Which do you think would be the better choice?

When the presentation was over, the County Council was given the opportunity to ask questions, and one of the questions asked was "what happens if the landfill leaks and contaminates the ground water, how do you fix it?" Well, the engineer for WM stepped up to the podium to answer the question, which was rather interesting — in his other remarks he spoke up clearly and firmly so all could hear him, however, when asked this question, he mumbled something that was inaudible (and we were sitting down front), and stepped away from the podium — I think the answer to that question was obvious by his response (or lack of response). I think someone needs to address that question directly to WM for a firm answer — just how do you "fix" a landfill that has already contaminated the underground water supply? A check of their "track record" will show that indeed the landfills DO leak — and they have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in fines in many, many locations all over the country because of this. Their record speaks for itself, loud and clear.

I appreciate all the hard work that the County Council has done in this matter, their task has not been an easy one. They are all honorable men, and I'm sure they will have the best interests of the citizens of Cherokee County at heart when they make their decision. Gerri Keys 181 Abingdon Road Gaffney, SC 29340

EDITOR'S NOTE: According to the S.C. Association of Counties website, Cherokee County is not the smallest county in South Carolina either in population or size. It is 44th in size

and 17th by population.