Horry County's three-year-old flow control ordinance may be facing its toughest test yet. The controversial law that requires all trash collected in Horry County to be taken to the county landfill is facing stiff opposition in Columbia.
Flow control has survived a legal challenge that went to the SC Supreme Court and bills in previous years that failed to pass, but some new bills to kill flow control have come up again and this time, they appear to have a good chance of passing.
Horry County Council passed its flow control ordinance in 2009, after the Solid Waste Authority claimed the county would lose millions of dollars from trash that was generated locally, but dumped elsewhere.
Three years later, supporters say the law generates revenue that helps pay for things like recycling programs, hazardous waste collection and even emergency phone service.
"We fund the enhancement of 911 out of our (trash) tipping fee money. So all those things would have to go back to be funded by taxpayers of Horry County," said Mike Bessant, SWA's governmental affairs director.
Bessant said two bills in the General Assembly to kill flow control, House Bill 4721 and Senate Bill 514, appear close to passing. The House bill has more than 50 sponsors.
Private trash haulers have complained that flow control costs them money and gives the county an unfair monopoly, though these days, it's impossible to get local haulers to talk publicly about flow control, for fear of upsetting the Solid Waste Authority.
But others entities, like the South Carolina Coalition of Mayors, headed by Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes, have come out publicly in favor of killing flow control.
The coalition's letter to State Senator Robert W. Hayes says "...entities purchasing waste services should have the right to choose with whom they want to do business.." The letter adds, "Paying monopoly prices for waste services stresses already tight municipal budgets."
Bessant doesn't deny that the SWA has a monopoly. "However, it's a monopoly of the people, by the people. If they don't like what we're doing they can change it."
Bessant said if flow control is overturned by state law, the county would have to raise property taxes by about one mil, or about $6 on a $100,000 home.
He said House Bill 4721 will come up before a subcommittee next week and could be ready for a final vote by early March.
