WINNSBORO – Fairfield County Council’s Presentation Committee voted 3-0 Monday night to allot 10 minutes at Council’s June 23 meeting for opponents of a proposed granite quarry off Rockton Thruway near Winnsboro. Dorothy Brandenburg, who represents the opposition to the quarry, said she wanted to review for Council the list of the community’s concerns so that Council might then ensure the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) is aware of those concerns.
“One of the key things I want to present is getting everybody on the same page, so the Council knows what we want, the people of the county know what we’re looking for and DHEC will know what we’re looking for,” Brandenburg said. “The way (DHEC) presented it to me is they have a checklist of things they go through and these studies that I requested don’t have to be addressed unless they are requested.”
Council Chairman David Ferguson (District 5) said that the application for the mining permit by Winnsboro Crushed Stone, LLC is entirely in the hands of DHEC, but that the County does have a role in making sure the community’s questions are addressed.
“The Council doesn’t have a say-so about this,” Ferguson said, “but what our responsibility is is to make sure that the questions are answered so they can be understood by the public and all the questions get answered.”
Brandenburg also asked the committee, which consisted of Ferguson, David Brown and Dwayne Perry, if the County planned to revise their existing land use management ordinances to make them more stringent for future mining operations. Milton Pope, Interim County Administrator, said there were no plans to revise the ordinances, and that the County had in fact just updated the ordinances two years ago.
