Gov. McMaster on the woman who interrupted his speech for New Indy rant: ‘She’s right’
Gov. Henry McMaster agreed with a woman who interrupted his speech Thursday in Indian Land with her complaints on the New Indy Catawba paper mill. He said she’s right. It’s a problem that still needs a fix.
McMaster spent much of Thursday in Lancaster County. He was the keynote speaker at a lunch event for the Greater Indian Land Chamber of Commerce. About 150 people attended. McMaster spoke on a variety of topics, many of them he described as statewide business success stories. He then attended a ribbon cutting a few miles up U.S. 521 for a 120,000-square-foot spec building, CrossRidge One.
McMaster spoke to the chamber group about progress made during the COVID-19 pandemic to keep South Carolina open for business and the state’s future bright for children. Then a woman in the back of the room called out her concern on New Indy.
“Then stop the New Indy paper mill from poisoning us,” the woman said.
Light applause followed, as did a short response from the governor.
“Well, you’re right about that,” he said.
The woman interrupted McMaster several more times claiming the state health department and the governor haven’t done enough to help. The woman left the room before McMaster finished speaking and The Herald wasn’t able to identify her. When McMaster said the New Indy situation is tough, the woman didn’t agree.
“It’s not tough,” she said. “It’s not tough. You have the power to do something and you’re choosing not to.”
As another audience member asked the woman to let the governor continue, he briefly addressed her concern before returning to his remarks.
“She’s right,” McMaster said. “New Indy has made a lot of mistakes and they have to fix them. They have to do it right away.”
New Indy is the paper mill in York County near Rock Hill, the Catawba Indian Reservation and the Catawba River. The company gives off a foul odor that can be smelled for miles. People living in the area have filed lawsuits and complained with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
At a recent public hearing, people from as far away as Waxhaw, N.C., north of Indian Land and more than 20 miles from the mill, complained about the odor and how it caused illness and harmed their quality of life. Officials with New Indy say they are working to solve the problem.
After the event McMaster met with media members and again addressed New Indy.
“It’s a terrible situation,” McMaster said. “We’ve had people call in for some time, particularly a lot of the old-timers who remember how it was and how it is now.”
McMaster said the state health department continues work on the issue and has an order up for comment now. The Environmental Protection Agency is working on a document related to the smell.
What McMaster didn’t commit to is what the woman Thursday called for him to do, shut the mill down. McMaster emphasized several times, in issues from New Indy to pandemic response, that he has to abide by laws in place.
“We’re doing what we can under the law, as quickly as we can to fix it,” McMaster said. “And it’s going to take a lot of fixing.”
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 4:33 PM.
