There is an administrative process that DHEC is supposed to file. After "publicly announcing" that a permit application has been filed, DHEC is supposed to solicit comments from the public before deciding. In this case the only "public announcement" was an obscure posting on the internet and an e-mail to those who put their names on a list asking for specific notifications. The latter is how I found out.
Anyway, the "public announcement" solicits the views of people who would be affected, either way, from the granting or denial of the permit and gives a deadline for responses. In this instance that deadline was December 8th. At that point DHEC decides whether there should be a public hearing about whether to grant or deny a permit before a decision in made. Whether to do that or not generally depends on the number of responses it had received and the content of the various responses. If it appears that granting or denying the permit would be controversial, DHEC usually decides to schedule a public hearing.
In this instance it is my understanding that there have been a number requests for a public hearing from prominent citizens, including elected and newly elected officials. DHEC should, therefore, schedule a public hearing. If it doesn't, that would be grounds for challenging any decision that it made one way or the other.
My best guess (and it is only a guess) at this point is that a public hearing will be scheduled, probably for sometime in early January. If so, there should be wide public announcement of the date, time and place of the hearing so that any interested parties can attend and, if they choose, participate. Any failure by local media (including GAB News) to provide notice would be a clear sign of either bias, or, as suggested by a previous posting, intimidation and, once again, would be a basis to challenge any decision made by DHEC, one way or the other.
My view at this point is that it is in everybody's best interests to play it straight from this point out. DHEC should schedule and announce the date, time and place of a hearing in a timely manner. Local media should give wide public notice of that meeting. That includes GAB News, the "Georgetown Times" (such as it is), the Post and Courier, local radio and TV stations and, if anyone has the time, on Citizens Report and on Facebook. Any shortcomings in the public notice process would be grist for the mill of attorneys. While I have no objection to full employment for attorneys in general, here a lot of cost, time and delay can be avoided simply by everybody playing it straight and being mutually respectful no matter what another person's views may be. Besides, attempts at intimidation or the making of threats-- a/k/a obstruction of justice, blackmail, bribery, extortion -- can land bullies in jail. Any suggestion or controversy about that sort of thing can also cause further delay that results in the clock running out on the mill's request vis-a-vis the city's zoning ordinance. So, to the bullies and children among the readers of this post, I'll simply say YOU BETTER PLACE NICE.
