After Hurricane Florence, flooding from Sterritt Swamp crept within inches of entering Chris Hodges’ and his mother, Cheryl’s, home, who have lived directly across the entrance of the Horry County landfill for many years.

Now, the Horry County Solid Waste Authority’s proposal to expand the landfill by filling over 100 acres of freshwater wetlands is alarming residents that there will be additional flooding in Conway, along with other communities, and environmental impacts including polluted waters and disturbing wetland habitats.

The proposed expansion near Highway 90 in Conway is to “provide additional landfill capacity for 23.4 million tons of non-divertible waste expected over the next 45 years” in an effort to meet the needs of Horry County’s growing population.

[...] The South Carolina Environmental Law Project submitted comments on behalf of six organizations and 67 signatories to the Corps, and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services opposing the approval of the expansion.

[...] Steritt Swamp serves as a habitat corridor between the Waccamaw River and the Lewis Ocean Bay Heritage Preserve, said Monica Whalen, South Carolina Environmental Law Project staff attorney. “It has extremely significant ecological values,” she said. The Corps’ public notice listed 11 endangered, proposed endangered, threatened and proposed threatened species potentially present in the project area. The comment letter sent to the Corps and the state Department of Environmental Services additionally addressed four rare or threatened species recorded within one mile of the project footprint during the last 10 years, including the bald eagle, Yellow Pitcher Plant, Leatherleaf and Stalked Milkweed. “The direct loss of wetlands will not only increase flooding and water pollution, but also result in habitat fragmentation,” Whalen wrote in the letter.