CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Berkeley County is asking DHEC for an additional $1.5 million to complete the clean up process at the Viva Tire Recycling site in Moncks Corner.
Viva was forced to close in 2017 after inspectors found a slew of violations. The company’s permit allowed them to have about 99,000 tires on site, however inspectors found nearly 300,000.
A $2 million dollar grant from DHEC was given to Berkeley County to hire a contractor to clean up the sea of tires. The clean up process began in August of 2018. A rep from the County says the project is ahead of schedule and should be completed no later than June of 2019.
Berkeley County says that more than 6,000 tons of tires have been removed.
However, some people are questioning why so much more money is needed.
Tom Fernandez recently visited the site and says it looks vastly different from his first visit.
"It looked like a scene out of a movie or tv show. Like ready for zombies to pop out and get me. What it looks like now compared to what it looked like before, it looks great. However, there's still questions on why so much more money is needed to complete the job."
The Solid Waste Committee also requested an additional 120,000 dollars to remove mounds of tire chips buried under the sea of tires but that request was denied.
People who live in Berkeley county say the burden shouldn’t fall on South Carolina’s tax payers.
"The citizens of Berkeley County are tired of projects and programs similar to the viva project that just fail and the people of Berkeley County have to pick it up. So I hope going forward we learn our lesson,"said Fernandez.
A response from DHEC says the county must agree that no further dumping will be allowed at the site once it’s cleaned up.
On January 28th the Berkeley County council will vote on final approval of the request.
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