Standing up

MSNBC.com

Cherokee County, S.C. - The fight over a proposed landfill is heating up in Cherokee County.
The company that wants to put the landfill in says it will provide a multi-million dollar investment in the county while promoting “green” methods.
But people who live in the area say all the risks outweigh any benefits.
Joan Wheeler told News 4’s Mandy Gaither the landfill would mean the disappearance of the land she loves.
“We’re concerned about McCown’s Mountain being eaten alive,” she said.
The proposed site encompasses more than 15-hundred acres along McCown’s Mountain Road.
The landfill would also include a recycling center.
It all would be right down the street from the proposed Duke nuclear power plant.
Wheeler says, “We’ve mounted a publicity campaign basically.”
She’s being helped by a group called “Clout”, which stands for Cherokee Landfill Opposition United Together.
So far, the group has more than a thousand signatures on a petition to stop the facility.
Organizers say they’re worried about traffic, pollution, health hazards, and declining property values.
But the company, Waste Management, Inc., says it’s addressing those concerns.
Bob Peeler, of Waste Management, says “We’ll deal with the traffic issue and we’re going to set aside 1100 acres as a nature preserve to border the property to deal with those issues.”
And, he says the purpose is to focus on recycling with a state of the art facility.
Cherokee County Council would have to approve the project because it voted a few years ago not to allow any new facilities.
Senator Harvey Peeler says he’s against the landfill. A letter from him will appear in the Cherokee Chronicle on Tuesday. His brother, Bob Peeler, works for the company that’s trying to put the landfill in.