South Carolina’s Anti-Flow Control Bill Tabled for 2012

South Carolina’s anti-flow control bill will not move forward this year, as the state’s legislative session ended with the proposal still residing in the Senate.

House Bill 4721 would prohibit waste flow control in the state and cancel out previous ordinances that restrict or prohibit waste disposal at any permitted solid waste management facility. It applies to recycling as well. It passed the state’s House in March, but it didn’t advance past a second reading in the Senate, says Mike Bessant, government affairs director for the Horry County Solid Waste Authority.

The proposed “Business Freedom to Choose Act” would overturn a Horry County flow control ordinance that directs all waste collected inside the county to the county landfill in Conway, S.C. Both Horry County and North Myrtle Beach, which resides in the county, oppose the proposed law.

“Were glad that the legislature did not take it up,” Bessant said in an interview. “It allows the solid waste authority to keep the program in tact without doing any modifications.“

He said it’s uncertain whether the legislature will take up the proposal again when it is back in session Jan. 1, but there is a good possibility they will.