Thu, Aug. 16, 2007
Environmentalists set new goals
Group realigns its political efforts for long haul at rally
By Steve Jones
The Sun News

The regional dump in the Green Swamp may be gone, but the Friends of the Green Swamp isn't.

The organization that formed several years ago to stop a regional landfill on the border of Columbus and Brunswick counties now wants to encourage local governments to start recycling programs throughout the Waccamaw River basin. It will work with affiliated organizations in Horry and Georgetown counties and Brunswick County, N.C., to make that happen, Steve Smith, chairman of Friends of the Green Swamp, said during ceremonies Wednesday in Whiteville, N.C., and Lake Waccamaw.

The rallies were planned months ago as yet another lobbying effort against the landfill. But a late-session bill to prohibit landfills within a mile of state gameland did the trick, said Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, and the organization lauded him and Rep. Dewey Hill, D-Columbus, at a morning press conference.

"They persuaded people that a landfill in the Green Swamp is not a good idea," Smith said.

The victory was the second this year for groups fighting landfills in or near Brunswick County. Simms Hugo Neu announced earlier in the year that it had abandoned efforts to build an automobile parts landfill near Navassa.

The battle has been won, Lois Gibbs of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice said, but the war is ongoing.

Gibbs' environmental advo cacy teeth were cut on fighting the notorious Love Canal in western New York, where toxic waste sickened two of her children and caused birth defects in more than half of the children born in the affected area.

Gibbs' advice to about 50 people who gathered to hear her story: Target politicians who won't help citizens fight pollution.

It's not enough to have scientific data to document the problem, she said, or to be able to show financial hardships from pollution. You have to prove you can translate your message into votes.
"When you talk about politics," she said, "it's not about being right. It's about being heard."

Susan Libes, a marine chemist at Coastal Carolina University, buttressed Gibbs' words in her talk to the group at Lake Waccamaw State Park. People in Horry County are worried about what pollutants may be coming downriver from North Carolina, she said, and people in Georgetown County are worried about that plus what is added in Horry County.

Libes said cleaning up waterways is done "one person at a time, one politician at a time."

"We wanted to make the pitch today that we're all in this Waccamaw watershed together," she said.

Libes said the Waccamaw River has the highest mercury levels of any river in coastal South Carolina. The mercury concentrates in fish that swim in the river, and through them it gets into humans.

Libes said groups working to improve water quality need to have a strong desire to do so, plus a plan of action that will help them to compete for federal grants.

Smith said his group isn't naive.

"We know the fact the landfill won't be in the Green Swamp doesn't mean there won't be a landfill," he said.

But the Friends of the Green Swamp and affiliated groups throughout the Waccamaw River basin want a place at the table when politicians talk about where and how to dump trash.

And they aim to work with local politicians to see that it happens.

It's about being heard.'



Contact STEVE JONES at 910-754-9855 or sjones@thesunnews.com.
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