A taxpayer-funded day program providing job training to adults with disabilities is located on a Superfund hazardous cleanup site, where day care centers, private residences, and hospitals are legally banned, according to a report by the Greenville News. Even raising livestock is prohibited on the nearly 20-acre South Carolina property.
$200,000 of state taxpayer money was paid to the Charles Lea Center toward the purchase of the $868,000 property last year, and the job training program now conducted on the site costs taxpayers $1.7 million annually.
David Kiely, the center's executive director, said the "minor spillage of some chemicals" on site before the purchase has been cleaned up and there is "no danger" to about 200 people with disabilities who now receive industrial worker training in the state-funded WorkAbility program.
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford expressed concern about the safety of the center through a spokesman, Joel Sawyer, who said in part, "This is not the kind of gray zone that you should be operating in, particularly when you're dealing with some of our most vulnerable citizens."
The state Department of Health and Environmental control will continue to investigate the degree of groundwater contamination on the property, which is located off the Asheville Highway. It is unclear when any cleanup work could be performed.
What do you think? Did the Charles Lea Center get a deal on 20 acres of prime real estate, or are people with disabilities being exposed to hazardous waste against their will as a result of the center's purchase? Should adult day programs be permitted where schools and farming are legally prohibited?
Related: Woman with Disabilities Dies Following Starvation in Group Home, Weighing Only 48 Pounds
Filed under: south carolina, taxes, institutions, hazardouse waste, adults with disabilities, contaminated ground water, charles lea center, disability abuse, superfund cleanup site, day programs, toxic waste, adult job training
