Hundreds against Silfab pack Fort Mill park, vow to keep fight to move plant
At Fort Mill’s Elisha Park on a sunny Friday afternoon, there were kids playing and moms and dads watching in 80-degree temperatures. A postcard for the suburbs, surely.
But along with the regular park-goers were at least 300 people who were not there to rush down the slide or run around. Those people came together, the small and the tall, the old and the young, carrying signs, to continue to fight against the Silfab Solar plant a couple miles away that has dominated the news all week.
Two times, chemical problems came to light at Silfab this week. Including on Friday when Silfab officials told The Herald — when questioned at a news conference —one “drip” of acid had been going on for a week, but the public never knew about that until Thursday. Company officials said the drip did not require notification to regulators.
John William Grigg, a fourth-grader wearing a hazmat suit, said this from his 10-year-old face formerly covered with the hood of the suit: “I wanna help stop Silfab.”
His sister, Juliana, 7 years old, carried a plastic toolbox.
“I’m intending to be a construction worker to move Silfab,” she said.
Their parents and grandfather were there, too. All fighting for one thing: Move Silfab. The name of a group that coordinated Friday’s gathering is the same: “Move Silfab.”
Many of the people at the park have been fighting for years against locating Silfab near two schools and thousands of homes. Silfab sits adjacent to Flint Hill Elementary School that opened this year and a middle school set to open in the fall.
Fort Mill schools closed Flint Hill elementary Thursday and Friday as a precaution after the Silfab leaks; the plant manager and York County officials have said there was no public safety concern, however.
Brandon Dunford, 36, pulled his kids out of Flint Hill Elementary earlier in the school year over safety concerns because Silfab is so close. What happened this week confirmed his fears about safety of kids near Silfab, he said.
“The only way my kids will go back is if Silfab gets closed and moved,” Dunford said.
Dunford said he wants all kids to be safe and will keep pushing for change.
South Carolina environmental officials have issued a stop work order at the plant. People opposed to Silfab’s location want it closed for good. Friday, they carried signs that said “kids should wear backpacks, not gas masks,” and other slogans.
In words to the crowd Friday, Move Silfab organizers vowed to keep fighting through the courts and through public demands for action by York County officials.
“We will not stop fighting until Silfab moves and this community is protected,” Scott Jensen of Move Silfab told the crowd.
In Friday’s news conference outside Silfab earlier in the day, the plant manager told the media the plant is safe and the company has followed safety protocols.
But for those who want Silfab moved, the only words they want to hear were chanted a few times Friday afternoon: “Silfab Out!”
Debi Cloninger, who represents part of Fort Mill on the York County Council, told the crowd she will keep fighting against the location of Silfab as she has for three years.
Kate Hanauer has two sons that attend Flint Hill Elementary.
She said she was “extremely angry” when she learned Friday that an acid “drip” had been going on for a week. And that came after an earlier spill of 300 gallons of chemicals on Tuesday. She said the gathering Friday shows the resolve of people who have been opposed to the plant for years and will not be daunted.
“We are here to protect families, children, and this community,” Hanauer said.
Hanauer, like others, said the Move Silfab group does not want to say, “I told you so.”
What they want is the plant to be shut down and moved. This week’s events have galvanized support against Silfab’s location and pushed politicians and others to join the movement against allowing Silfab to operate where it is, she said.
“This is a tipping point,” she said.
This story was originally published March 6, 2026 at 5:39 PM.
