Associations File Brief Supporting South Carolina Landfill

Several waste and recycling associations filed a brief with the South Carolina Supreme Court supporting the overturning of a jury verdict against a landfill for nuisance and trespass issues.

Combining on the amicus brief filed in support of the Lee County Landfill was the South Carolina chapter of the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA), the Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) and the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA).

The NSWMA said in a news release that the associations responded to five questions put forward by the federal district court. The answers spoke to limiting damages on nuisance and trespass issues and limitations on how odor issues can be judged.

The Supreme Court’s answer to the questions “could dramatically impact hundreds of South Carolina businesses, including the owners and operators of landfills, transfer stations, recycling centers and other solid waste management facilities,” the NSWMA said.

In the brief the associations said, “If left undisturbed, the jury verdict in the district court case threatens the ability of private sector waste and recycling companies and their public sector brethren in municipal and county solid waste departments to provide cost-effective solid waste processing and disposal services to residents and businesses in South Carolina.”

The associations urged the court “to follow the well-settled law of nuisance and trespass in South Carolina.”