DHEC asks trustee of closed landfill to resign

COLUMBIA (AP) — State environmental regulators are asking the company that's managing a closed hazardous waste landfill in Sumter County to resign as trustee.

Department of Health and Environmental Control director Catherine Templeton told The Associated Press on Friday that Kestrel Horizons has done a good job overseeing the 279-acre site near Lake Marion, but its administrative fees are too high. She said the fees are further depleting the trust fund that's supposed to maintain the site for the next 90 years.

Templeton says her agency has been asking company officials for months to trim costs.

A court appointed Kestrel Horizons of Greenville as the site's trustee, after industrial waste hauler Safety-Kleen filed for bankruptcy in 2000.

Kestrel Horizons director Bill Stephens said Friday company officials were meeting on the request.