Plant wants neighbors' help on cleanup costs
MYRTLE BEACH --- A company being sued by neighbors for polluting groundwater around its plant is asking a court to force those neighbors to help pay for testing and cleanup.
AVX Corp. says in a proposed complaint filed in federal court that federal laws require shared liability for environmental contamination. Cleanup of the property, which is contaminated with the chemical trichloroethylene, could cost millions.
Residents and a real estate firm that leased land to AVX for a parking lot have sued the company over the illegal dumping.
An attorney for AVX did not immediately return a telephone message left Sunday.
According to documents at the state Department of Health and Environmental Control, the company dumped trichloroethylene into groundwater and the city's sewer system for at least 14 years, ending in 1995, and has known about contamination at its site for 20 years. AVX paid a $7,000 fine as part of a consent agreement with state agency but admitted no wrongdoing.
Undercover officer finds escaped inmate
COLUMBIA --- An inmate missing from the Federal Correctional Institution in Estill since Tuesday was captured Saturday, the U.S. Marshals Service said.
Terry Lowry, 59, was waiting for a friend of a friend to pick him up in Allendale County when he got into a truck with an undercover officer, Deputy U.S. Marshal Tim Stec said in a news release.
Mr. Lowry was serving a 54-month sentence on federal cocaine charges out of Georgia. He will now face escape charges, Deputy Marshal Stec said.
Nearly 20 percent of voters cast ballots
COLUMBIA --- Nearly 20 percent of South Carolina's registered voters cast ballots in Saturday's Republican presidential primary won by John McCain, according to state officials.
More than 437,000 of the state's more than 2.25 million registered voters -- 19.5 percent -- braved chilly, wet weather to make their picks, the state Election Commission said, citing unofficial results.
Pickens, Greenville and Lexington counties had the top rates, with all seeing more than 26 percent of registered voters turn out.
Comments
AVX Corp. is absolutely right to demand that those private citizens and the real estate company should help pay to clean up all of that trichloroethylene. After all, trichloroethylene is a common household substance which most people have in their kitchen pantries, and those darn neighbors obviously have been dumping it in the ground and sewers for a long time. I always dispose of my trichloroethylene properly when I'm done using it in my home; why can't they? You go, AVX Corp!
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