Judge Michael Nettles ruled in favor of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control in a lawsuit filed by Marlboro County against the agency over a mega dump.
The county challenged DHEC's issuance of a permit to a company that wants to build a mega landfill in the northern part of Marlboro County.
The judge's ruling came down Thursday afternoon, and the parties involved received copies of it Friday.
The hearing over the lawsuit took place last month at the Marlboro County Courthouse in Bennettsville.
In 2007, DHEC issued what's called a Demonstration of Need (DON) permit to MRR, a company that wants to build a mega dump on a 900-plus acre site in Wallace.
The landfill would take in trash from all over the east coast.
Attorneys for Marlboro County challenged the DON Statute, S.C. Code ANN 44-96-290 (E) and 2000 DON regulations S.C. Code Ann. Regs. 61-107-17, requirements for landfills.
The county argued the requirements are unconstitutional and it believed because of that, DHEC made a mistake when it issued the permit to MRR.
A copy of the ruling shows Nettles sided with DHEC, saying the sections of law are facially constitutional in their entirety.
The chairman of the Marlboro County Council, Ron Munnerlyn, gave NewsChannel 15 a statement over the phone about the ruling.
He says they knew it could go either way because it challenged state law.
Munnerlyn says they don't consider it to be negative, and they're confident they're moving in the right direction.
Marlboro County has at least two other lawsuits pending against the mega dump.
