Fort Mill parents, fearful for schools, urge York County to revoke Silfab deal
Fort Mill resident Melora Copeland remembers her initial reaction to a chemical spill this month at nearby Silfab Solar. The mom thought of her two boys.
”When something like this happens, every parent asks the same question,” Copeland said. “What if it had been worse?”
Regent Park resident Ashley Horne thought about the nearly 2,000 students who will attend two schools right beside the 7149 Logistics Lane property. Flint Hill Elementary School is open now, and Flint Hill Middle School opens next year.
Horne thought of York County’s response, and concerns about the county being sued if it shuts Silfab down that “sounds less like legal guidance, and more like an excuse to avoid accountability,” she said.
“Are we putting a dollar value on our children’s safety?” Horne asked.
Copeland and Horne were among dozens of people who showed up Monday ahead of York County Council’s meeting in York to protest the Silfab site. Many wore hoodies, hats and buttons with “Move Silfab” on them. There were signs mentioning hydrofluoric acid and silane, and a sign stating “Fort Mill not Fort Spill.”
Monday’s meeting was the first time the Council gathered to hear public input since two chemical release incidents this month at Silfab Solar. The company reported 300 gallons of a solution containing potassium hydroxide spilled on March 3. Two days later, York County reported a drip from a tank containing hydrofluoric acid that Silfab found in late February.
After three years of public protests and pleas for the county not to allow to solar panel manufacturing at the Silfab site, opponents intensified their calls for action.
Residents demand York County pull certificate of occupancy
Residents didn’t wait for the 6 p.m. meeting to demand that York County revoke the certificate of occupancy that Silfab received to operate at the Logistics Lane site. Several dozen residents held a protest outside the meeting on Monday afternoon.
“York County Council has the authority to act, and the community is demanding that they use it,” said Scott Jenson prior to Monday’s meeting, in announcing the latest public protest.
Jenson is part of two related groups that arose in opposition to the company manufacturing on Logistics Lane, Move Silfab and Citizens Alliance for Government Integrity.
He points to a county Board of Zoning Appeals ruling three years ago that solar panel manufacturing shouldn’t be allowed in light industrial areas like the Silfab site. Jenson and others see the county’s role in approving or revoking a certificate of occupancy as a way for York County to force Silfab to move or shut down.
Concern related to schools has been a common theme.
“After recent chemical incidents at the facility, there is no excuse for continued inaction,” Jenson said. “Our schools, our families and our community deserve action.”
Silfab’s operations include an assembly component that doesn’t involve chemicals, and a manufacturing element that does. The company stopped work at the site for several days before resuming the assembly piece. The state environmental department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspected the site before it reopened.
Silfab released a statement Monday night that it reached a compliance agreement with the state environmental department that includes “a series of conditions that Silfab has agreed to meet.” Further details on those conditions weren’t given.
The company will continue to update state, county and school officials on work being done at the site, according to the statement.
York County doesn’t issue an immediate decision
The county didn’t schedule any decision related to Silfab on Monday’s agenda. Legal advice related to the Silfab site was listed under executive session, the closed door portion of each meeting used to discuss legal or personnel matters.
Council doesn’t take votes in executive session but can return to open session to vote.
Council remained in executive session past midnight, and didn’t comment about the Silfab site after briefly returning to open session. Three votes in open session added attorney and government liaison roles, again without comment on how they might be related to Silfab.
Prior to Monday Council met twice since the chemical incidents, but didn’t field public input either time.
On March 6, Council met for more than an hour and a half in executive session to discuss Silfab. Council returned to open session and voted to have county staff and its legal team use “all powers within the county’s authority” to make sure the company complied with S.C. Department of Environmental Services rules. Those powers could include emergency ordinances or cease and desist directives.
Council also met March 10, but that workshop focused on annual budgeting.
Residents say they’ll remember Silfab decisions
One mother described standing in “a line of anxious and terrified parents” waiting to be reunified with her child when Flint Hill Elementary closed for the first of two days due to the Silfab incidents. Another resident accused the county of rewriting its zoning rules to avoid accountability on Silfab. Several mentioned that Council members would be defined by the decision they make on Silfab.
John Lee pointed to the school property that York County rezoned so schools would be allowed.
“This Council voted to rezone (land for) those Flint Hill schools,” he said. “Please protect the children that you all placed in harm’s way.”
Children playing at recess beside a site that’s had chemical releases is too much for area residents to let go, said neighbor John Wirth. Residents already have been protesting the location for three years, and that’s before “theory ended and reality began” with this month’s spill, Wirth said.
”This issue is not going away,” he said. “The public is engaged and enraged. The risk is real.”
The only positive to the situation thus far, he said, is that the Silfab spill wasn’t worse.
”It was a warning shot and we got lucky,” Wirth said. “Next time could be a disaster.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2026 at 5:07 AM.