SMALL S.C. TOWN COULD BE LINKED TO BIG SCANDAL
|| By FITSNEWS || Back in August, this website picked up on some strange reports coming out of Lyman, S.C. – where state and federal officials raided the town’s offices, seizing computers and other electronic equipment.
At the time, we noted the probable cause of the raid …
“According to our sources, the investigation may have something to do with the ongoing probe into the illegal dumping of toxic chemicals in sewage systems along the Interstate 85 corridor in Charlotte, Spartanburg, Greenville and Lyman,” we wrote.
We also noted in our report that in February 2014 “it was discovered that polychlorinated biphenyls (or PCBs) – commonly used in coolant products – had been dumped into Charlotte’s wastewater system,” and that “similar cases of PCB dumping and contamination in South Carolina have been uncovered.”
We’re now prepared to provide our readers with an update on this situation …
According to a source with direct knowledge of the situation, the Lyman scandal (and the law enforcement raid) is indeed part of a multi-agency investigation into illegal dumping – one involving the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) and at least two federal agencies.
We’ve also learned the dumping isn’t limited to the I-85 corridor, either. Toxic chemicals have allegedly been deposited as far away as Columbia, S.C.
In 2013, this scandal jumped to a higher energy level when a Duncan, S.C. police officer rolled up on a septic tank truck dumping toxic chemicals in a grease trap behind an abandoned Denny’s restaurant on Highway 290.
The grease pit fed into the Lyman sewer system, prompting the responding officer to call the Lyman police department – specifically sergeant Michael Hames.
That’s when things got really interesting …
Hames – indicted last year for destroying evidence – reportedly placed a call at the scene to the mayor of Lyman, Rodney Turner, seeking instruction on how to handle the situation.
The ensuing conversation was recorded on Hames’ dash camera, but the original tape from that exchange is long gone …
Later, the driver of the truck Tim Howard – who was never busted in connection with the illegal dumping – was later arrested for perjury and obstruction of justice following a hearing stemming from the traffic stop.
Sources familiar with the August 2014 raid of Lyman’s municipal offices tell us Turner was indeed its target. They also tell us other several other elected and appointed officials are connected to the investigation.
Furthermore, we’re told the probe – which reportedly centers around a company based in Raleigh, N.C. – is on the verge of blowing wide open.
“It’s big,” one law enforcement source familiar with the case told FITS, although they declined to elaborate on the timing of any indictments related to the scam.
Another source in Gastonia, N.C. – one of the communities affected by the illegal dumping – told FITS the PCB dumping was a “multi-state conspiracy” involving the transport and disposal of waste in communities where “the cops and the politicians have all been bought off.”
Wow …
FITS is in the process of collecting all sorts of additional information related to this scandal. Stay tuned for much, much more …
***
96 comments
I smell RICO charges for these corrupted gov’t operators….which would be good because they are brutal charges. What an irony RICO was originally targeting the mob.
Collusion, fraud, diversion of funds, stealing from your state treasury, Malicious Intent to defraud the taxpayers. … What happened to those FBI-ies that were investigating your legislature? They have the power and the opportunity and the supportive legal eagles in order to investigate and hopefully expose …
“What happened to those FBI-ies that were investigating your legislature? ”
Who knows. All valid points, most of the Statehouse malfeasance could be prosecuted under RICO…but isn’t. So what I smell is yet again the stench of unchecked corruption. Your point is made.
This is interesting. I have some Clients that own restaurants in Greenville and Rewa (something else you should investigate Sic) was requiring all restaurants to go through certain test at the restaurants expense and then upgrade how their sewer could be access (With lock and key) at the expense of the business owners ($2500-5k per access point).
What explanation was being given to the owners for these procedures? Sounds hinky to me.
That someone has been dumping the PCB’s and they did not know where and it cost a fortune for the sewer system (ReWa) to clean it up. They said if they did not, they would cut off sewer service. ReWa don’t mess around and holds all the cards. Like with Greenville built the new baseball stadium, ReWa refused to allow sewer to it unless Greenville agreed to do million of dollars of upgrades city wide. They had no choice as they did not get approval prior to the construction and had to agree to it.
For a long time, ReWa would not allow new hook ups in Taylors until they agreed to do all these upgrades so all development was stopped for 3 years.
Thanks …..
I’m in the waste disposal business and I was the one who first posted on the PCB issue. I’ve been to technical briefings on the situation since it started and am involved in sampling certain points for clients.due to this situation.
Don’t make Western Carolina Sewer Authority (now known as ReWa” but since I’m “old school” I refuse to use that “cute” brand) out to be the bad guy on this. I know a lot of people who work for western Carolina and they are professionals – some of the best in the state and have won awards nationally.
Y’all kinda got the horse before the cart………….
Just about EVERY sewer authority on the I-85 corridor had to go to restaurants and other facilities that utilize grease traps and require testing and enhanced security BECAUSE of this illegal dumping.
But as far as Lyman goes, even more unbelievable is what the mayor did for the busted cop. During a Town council meeting they GAVE the busted cop a $10,000 K-9 dog because the other K-9 cop didn’t want the job anymore!!!!!
I won’t go into the details right now but you can research it on Spartanburg Herald-Journal website (“GoUpstate.com)
It is UNBELIEVABLE!!!
You can’t make this shit up!!!!!!!
Michael Hames is the busted cop I am referring to and is mentioned in FITS article above.
The guy is a REAL piece of work……
You’ll have to read about his “antics” and prior work history before becoming one of “Lyman’s finest”!!!!!
And IMHO, the “K-9” story tops them all!!!!!!!!!
Big deal. What’s the guy going to do with it? Life span, utility life span, handler connection. A 10k dog depreciates rather quickly.
As for defending ReWa – take a look at how some of those commissioners participate in land speculation prior to sewer expansion.
As for ReWa, take a look at how some developers can’t get sewer access for their projects but magically the next developer gets the access for the same property.
I didn’t care for you before – now I feel good about it.
Like I give a shit what some ignorant gomer like you thinks.
you’re probably one of those whiney developer types who think they can get whatever they want done and on the cheap at that.
I’ve got real love for you,the State of South Carolina or football as it is situated today
How about that?????
People using polluted Lake Greenwood might take issue with you over how great Western Carolina is.
Well, think how bad it would be if there WERN”T a Western Carolina and the shit just flowed from the Upstate to Lake Greenwood
Turds,sanitary napkins,vomit,dead critters,every type of industrial waste you could imagine
Get the point????????
A good engineer understands the basic difference between “does something” and “does enough.” Something vs. sufficient.
Tuning the arrogance dial down a notch or two might be a start. Sort of like a bar screen.
u idiots promoting dumping your toxic brew on farm fields should be strung from tall trees with short ropes.
You’ll never learn tho. This was a disaster waiting to happen. How many thousands of acres of farm fields are now contamined with pcbs? How many hundreds of miles of streams now are too polluted to fish in.
You cant fix stupid – and you in waste industry really take the “cake” on that one.
I could spend hours trying to explain it but even then you probably would not understand.
You really don’t understand the purpose of water treatment plants is to make water that might NOT be safe to drink the best quality water in the world and the wastewater treatment plants make shitty water fit to be reused – do you????
If it wasn’t for water/wastewater treatment plants and the people who design and operate/maintain them it REALLY would be one hell of a mess and “shitloads” of people would be dead of chlorea and dysentary…. just like in the “good old days” of rugged individualism back in the 19th century and before!!!!
Talk about not being able to “fix stupid”!!!!!!
1) Taylors has a sewer system that feeds REwa
2) It was out-dated so the requirement was justifiable
3) Who the fuck wants to live in Taylors anyway?
What is ReWa and is it a Special Purpose District…since I infer it is not a city or county entity?
ReWa is the “branded” name for Western Carolina Sewer Authority (Greenville,SC) which has been around since at least the 1930’s or 40’s and is one of the biggest sewer authorities in SC.
Western Carolina got “rebranded” to this stupid “ReWa” BS around 5 years ago. I refuse to call it that but still refer to it as “Western Carolina”
This PCB shit is costing most of the sewer authorities along the I-85 corridor from Anderson to Charlotte big time to purge the treatment systems of PCB contamination.
Is it a Special Purpose District?
I guess you could call it that.
Just like many water districts are.
That or like many cities/towns they are part of the utilities package.
Either way water,sewer or combined water/sewer districts are heavily regulated and monitored by state agencies (like SC DHEC or NC DHNR) which in turn regulated/monitored by US EPA
Which is the way it should be and has been since 1970.
I’ve been professionally involved in the “water & waste” industry for 40 years and some of this stuff being posted by technically ignorant types is pure bullshit.
EPA’s sewage sludge regulations were politically gamed or fixed and are too lax and not based on good science or responsible engineering. Sewage plants needed a place to put sludge, land spreading was cheaper than landfilling, sludge hauler/spreaders could make a fortune doing so, farmers wanted free fertilizer, and EPA had to find some alternative, especially when they banned ocean dumping. Money won out. As always. Science was perverted (read “Science for Sale” by a chief EPA sludge researcher). It can be done far more safely but slightly more expensively. Can’t have that though! Enjoy those teeming microbes, parasite eggs, and polluted well water. Have faith.
water industry is well connected, wealthy, and they dont fuck around. This pcb thing messed with their bank account and made them look bad. They dont like to look bad. Everyone in every community in sc will feel wef/awwa wrath. When the regulation was presented at DHEC, wef/awwa lawyers lobbied hard to weaken it almost to the point of not having a regulation at all. Water protection, hell farm land protection (where your maginally treated shit goes – along with hospital waste and industrial toxins) – its all a thing of the past. We the people lost control decades ago.
Free market capitalism at work. With a little political corruption thrown in for good measure.
Hint:
Anything “market” with gov’t involvement is not “free market capitalism”.
Government not doing its job protecting the people does not equate to the free market doing it of its own accord. In a world without government, what entity prevents bad actors from dumping harmful waste? What keeps said entity from going corrupt?
Asshole things like this are just the fundamental nature of humanity, there is no utopia that would fully prevent some dick from poisoning whatever with their lazy, greedy bullshit, but turning over the responsibility of stopping these people to an entity whose sole goal is to rake in profits sounds like it wouldn’t rid corruption, quite the opposite actually.
“Government not doing its job protecting the people does not equate to the free market doing it of its own accord.”
Never claimed it does. My point is, the gov’t controls the water supply, the police that are supposed to investigate, etc.
Nitrat claimed the “free market” was responsible, which it clearly is not.
“no utopia that would fully prevent some dick from poisoning whatever”
Never claimed that such a utopia exists. My argument is that man would be more prosperous and bad actors better address through the free market.
Obviously, you disagree.
It is the ‘free market’ and the money it creates that corrupts the public officials.
“It is the ‘free market’ ”
Nope.
The free market would just let property values in Lyman plummet to nothing. Then po’ folk could come in, drink the polluted water, become mutated freaks who could get jobs in carnival sideshows.
The free market’s invisible hand is always holding us gently and lovingly, even if our hand is mutated from toxic chemicals.
You still have to see the rich irony of agents of government profiting off by not following government regulations.
That will continue to be ignored as it doesn’t fit the agenda.
Hah…
Except that that has very little to do with any free markets.
Nope (below) is absolutely correct: That is pure crony capitalism, for shore.
One good clue for you all: If you personally are cut outta the money loop by g’ment or their cronies, then it has absolutely nothing to do with any free markets.
Hah.
Do not look behind that screen. How dare anyone question the motives and actions of the South Carolina Governing Class – LLC.
The politicians ARE the mob.
Willy Sutton re: banks and politics: “… because that’s where the money is.”
Shirley you all can see that connection by now.
Don’t call him Shirley.
:)
Every so often I run that little test and others to see if anyone actually reads my stuff … ;-}
Self awareness is over-rated, just ask Tango.
“People are going to get sick and they’ll have to take them to the hospital.” “The hospital? What is it” “That a big building where they take sick people, but don’t worry about that now.”
“……..disposal of waste in communities where “the cops and the politicians have all been bought off.”….”
Do tell – many moons ago used to canoe on the Congaree River. Early one afternoon pulled canoe onto the bank right below the point where Columbia dumps its pristine poop into the river
Had just about finished my can of Viennas when I saw a shadow out of the corner of eye. I sat there frozen as this catfish walked [yep it had legs] right up the bank, grabbed my can [yep it had hands] reached in [yep it had fingers] took a couple of Vienna’s out and then asked [yep it could talk] if I had any Ranch dressing
Ever since then I have been meaning to try Ranch with my Viennas but just don’t have the desire to run the risk of talking to that catfish again
hah! hah! —- bye the bye, let’s see how many folks jump in on this question: who pronounces it “VI-enna” or “VE-enna”?
BAR-B-Q
That’s being generous. How about “lips & assholes”?
“assholes and elbows”
Lykes Potted Meat Product — a whole quality step below Vienna sausages.
Vie-ee-nah.
Vi-een-ies
The lent heads from Lyman call them “Vie-een-ers.”
You mean ‘lint’?
Expecting drinkable water, clean rivers and the ability to actually see the sky through the smog are all socialist liberal hippy crap. The free market will take care of it. Hell i remember before Nixon created the EPA when a guy could actually go down to a river and actually light it on fire it was so full of pollutants..ahhh the good old days. I have no fear..im sure the free market will take care of it..dam hippies wanting clean water etc..dont they know Exxon, Dow etc is always thinking about the envioirnment..dam hiipies.
‘dam hippies’. You got that right. They American hating bastards fucked the Vietnam War up and destroyed the moral culture in this country for a couple of decades with their perversion and drug inflicted ways.
Then the state controlled universities hired the trash from this generation as tenured socialists/marxists to brainwash the future generations that America is evil.It in turn has filtered into the local public schools.
How we got Obama and why he and his ‘ilk’ are trying to recreate the ‘hippie’ 60’s culture to finish America off.
What the fuck does this have to do with this goddamn story?
key word is ‘hippie’ dumbfuck rocky.
ahh flip once again posts under another name..sad little troll with no friends..well except grand asshat..what a couple.
You are right of course. Let me tell you another secret…….I’m really Grandtango posting under a different name. Bet you stupid liberals would have never figured that out in a million years! LMAO!!!
There once was a person name Flip, who drippled crap from his lip,
When confronted with facts, he fast turned his ass,
And ran away from the argument quick.
His name was Flip Coscoe, couldn’t get a job at Costco,
Was in love with Grand Tango, went to Charlotte for his nose blow,
Driven to insanity, his gay lover was Sean Hannity,
He’s sort of a sissy, when he’s losing an argument –
He throws a hissy.
Says he loves the nation, has Obama fatuation……..
pubs in charge and Rocky has lost his mind
boehner and mitch have him in a bind
No jobs, gay marriage, drugs and ISIS led to the dems defeat
Obamacare will be repealed
The border will be sealed
Rocky will drink drink drink
Not sober enough to think think think
A crack pipe and 40 to kill the pain
For an American hating socialist going insane
If Obama wants to finish America off, all he needs to do is clone you and GrandTango a hundred and fifty million times each. Then you’ll equal half the population and we’re all guaranteed to be in for a shit show, conservatives and liberals and libertarians alike.
What does any of that have to do with the illegal dumping of chemicals?
You seem lonely. Might want to check out some of the FITS ads.
Sorry…I am happily married.
I weep for your spouse.
not as much as his spouse/partner weeps for his choice to get involved with flip..he must regret his decision minute by minute..
I weep for your vibrator.
Can you spell assume?
yeah, but I bet your spouse aint’.
How could she not be? 6’5″ 250 and handsome.Plenty of money and travel. A brilliant thinker.
You forgot humble.
LOLOLOL flip only cares if he can use america hater, anal sex, sucking someone off and liberal in the same paragraph..all else is irrelevant..cant you tell by the tiny trolls posts?
socialist liberal hippy crap
——-
amen, br’er ugly!
“Expecting drinkable water, clean rivers and the ability to actually see the sky through the smog are all socialist liberal hippy crap.”
No, that’s “reasonable person crap”. You don’t have to be a socialist liberal hippy to want that.
“The free market will take care of it.”
No it won’t, just like the gov’t doesn’t do it either. In fact, gov’t protects bad actors via Superfund sites & the like.
“don’t they know Exxon, Dow etc is always thinking about the environment.
And do you know who Exxon, Dow, et al owns? Your precious gov’t, more specifically the President on down.
Clearly, when you look at the pollution scandal coming down the pike, some other business owns the pols, cops & everyone else that is collaborating to allow pollution.
So rant all you want against the “evil” free market, which is nothing more than voluntary exchange, it has nothing to do with bad actors buying off gov’t goons.
And we thought that Aiken County’s road are filthy with trash and car and truck junkyards????
That’s nothing. The Global Worms are encouraging our military to dump on Taxifornia from the air. Yesterday there was a whole flight (several tankers) flying parallel to the coast line, spewing Aluminum Oxide directly on the population. (Aluminum Oxide has been linked to dementia and Alzheimer’s.)
PCBs can be burned as fuel to generate electricity, despite what your local environmental whack job may tell you. But your local yokels and your state environmental “protection” Central Planning screw-ups are more interested in raising your taxes than actually solving any “dirty” landfill problems.
Baby, SCDHEC don’t care if we glow in the dark.
Meh. Dumping chemicals seems minor to the other stuff that should be investigated around the state.
Don’t forget Pelion (water is undrinkable because a nasty chemical into the soil) and Cedar Creek (lots of chemical barrels rotting away) and all this was reported to DHEC and Lexington City Council to do something (it’s been more than 20 years and they’re still doing it.
Templeton to resign on Monday!
Catherine Templeton don’t care……she resigned today…..effective 1/12
Wow, the head rat jumping ship before her political aspirations get stamped out. Nice….
Is this why CT resigned?
So all that craft micro brew will make you glow in the dark. And for that ass who said the craft brewers aren’t going to be a drain on our water supply as they migrate here from the West Coast, a leading exec. with Sierra Nevada recently stated that they consume 4 gallons of water to generate 1 gallon of beer. So there.
What’s the beef? These alleged incidents took place in the Republican promised lands known as North and South Carolina where the “free market” reigns (ha, ha, ha) and all regulations are detested. Who wants to bet that in the new Congress the first vote to gut the EPA will get the votes of Mulvaney and McHenry?
It’s not “free market” to have tax payers clean up their mess or suffer the destruction of natural resources.
privatize profit, socialize risk. its the republican way.
“FITS is in the process of collecting all sorts of additional information related to this scandal. Stay tuned for much, much more …”
Good. Into the greasetrap is bad enough . . . under the rug would be worse. And it has happened. Like that asbestos-laden illegally-dumped waste in Lexington Co. that Jake got covered up (figuratively and perhaps literally).
Dear “Rice Motley”……….
If you think is just about dumping and need a tie in to the “burn pit” fiasco you are involved with………you may want to sit back and think about the methane tapping landfill kick back scheme….!!!
The reason this is going to blow “wide open” ….is the tie in to “troop and taxpayer” abuse…!!
This is just another example of the cumbersome over regulation of the free market place by big government. I mean, shouldn’t corporations be able to cut through all that expensive red tape and just dump toxins where they please?
As a journalist, the poor level of reporting, the vague reference to unspecified “sources” and “all sorts of additional information,” is appaling. Stop misleading people. You deserve to be sued for libel, as you clearly cannot support the huge accusations you’re making. Learn how to actually produce quality, reliable and truthful investigative pieces. It’s unsupported claims like these that give journalists’ a bad reputation.
You are not Amanda Irwin (reporter, Greer Citizen). But thanks for playing!
Greenville’s water used to be the cleanest, natural water in the world (yes, the world). Then the EPA demanded that they add chlorine to “purify it,” or they would take away their Federal grant. DHEC bent the knee. Now the water tastes like a swimming pool.
Cleanest municipal-system surface water source, perhaps. Most well water is cleaner in terms of microbes.
Dude:
They’ve been chlorinating the water from the Greenville Watershed for damn well over 50 years WAY before the EPA was created in 1970
Maybe in Spg, but not Gvl. I got a 20 minute kindly lecture from Norwood about the watershed and how it was screwed up in the 70’s by the EPA about my second day there.
Just goes too show how cheap people are, They don’t want too spend the money in the right way and make sure it is deposed in the right way!,, because it would cost less too do it the right way then the wrong way!? but the wrong way is a lot cheaper when you don’t have to pay for it, but then the fines are just as cheap to keep doing business as usual. That’s where our Government sucks. They will fine a speeder $200. for one mile over the speed limit and fine someone dumping sewage in a creek the same thing? Then you have these big company’s doing this and it doesn’t hurt them one bit. waa waa. Government is corrupted. That what they did back in the 60 & 70’s and they are starting it again. goes to show you money talks bull shit walks!
Maybe not all people are like that, there are some who, I believe, also tried their best to help in their little ways in preserving Mother Nature like on proper segregation and hazardous waste disposal but maybe because we are only seeing the negative effects and there’s no improvement or something effectively done especially from the government. That is why, for the most part, we are blaming people/companies and/or every thing that relates to all these.