Silfab Solar anticipates reopening its Fort Mill facility at 6:30 p.m. Friday, following conversations with York County officials and the state Department of Environmental Services, or DES.
At a press conference Friday morning, Greg Basden, Silfab’s director of operations in Fort Mill, said the company is “working closely with regulators to keep everyone informed of our operations.”
Almost immediately following the Silfab press conference, the York County Council met to discuss how it wants to proceed. The council on Thursday had called a special meeting for noon Friday.
After more than 90 minutes in executive session, the council voted unanimously “to direct county management and county legal to invoke and exercise all powers within the county's authority to direct support and ensure that all SCDES directives are strictly adhered to and followed. This includes but is not limited to invoking emergency ordinance powers issuing cease and desist directives to comply with all SCDES and EPA directives, continue to fully cooperate, and join and assist efforts by SCDES and EPA to ensure the company adheres to all permitting laws and health and safety standards; and to direct management to compile a timeline of all factual events of recent days so that it is available for all of public input.”
York Council Chairwoman Christi Cox made the statement, for which there was no discussion, and the meeting was immediately adjourned following the vote.
This week
On Tuesday, approximately 300 gallons of a potassium hydroxide solution -- used in the making of soap and pretzels -- spilled from a 1,500-gallon tank at the Fort Mill plant. That spill was contained on-site and quickly deemed to be not harmful to the public, but it led to almost immediate calls among state and local officials to shut Silfab down.
Silfab paused operations on Thursday, based on a DES directive, after it was reported that there was a separate hydrofluoric acid leak at the site.
Also on Thursday, DES issued a letter stating that it wants Silfab to suspend operations, pending a thorough inspection by state and federal environmental officials. In that statement, DES wrote: “If Silfab elects to restart assembly work before determining the root causes of the spills and completion of the assessment, the Department will take appropriate legal action.”
DES did not respond to requests for an interview regarding this matter.
Thursday’s incident led to the Fort Mill School District closing Flint Hill Elementary School, which sits close to the plant.
Silfab’s proximity to the school has been the source of much public backlash for two years and has become a major point of conversation among candidates for political office this week.
At Friday’s press conference, Basden stated that the presence of hydrofluoric acid was a “very small drip” from a tank that amounted to about “three tablespoons total.” Basden said such drips are not uncommon , but that this is the first such incident at the Fort Mill site.
The site received its certificate of occupancy less than a month ago and employs approximately 700.
Basden also said the decision to close Flint Hill Elementary was an overreaction.
“ [Thursday’s incident] never rose to a level that would prompt or should prompt the school district to cancel classes on two concurrent days,” he said. “It's unfortunate that the school district decided to cancel without having all the details.”
He added: “I want to express my sincere apology and concern to the parents. I know your lives were disrupted. It's unfortunate, but it … wasn't necessary.”
The district said Thursday that the decision to close Flint Hill was out of an abundance of caution. In a press conference Thursday, Fort Mill Superintendent Grey Young said the incident at the time was of “significant concern” to warrant canceling classes at Flint Hill for its 300 students.
The students Thursday were not yet to campus when the decision to close was made.
Basden said the company knew of the hydrofluoric acid drip a week before word got out to the public. He said Silfab did not report it because the drip was so small that it was unnecessary to do so.
“At the rate that it's dripping, it far from required any communications in our reaction plans,” Basden said. “The fact that it's neutralized, the fact that it's contained inside of a hundred percent containment building -- that qualifies as it wasn't necessary to communicate it.”
He maintained that redundant safety protocols are in place at the Fort Mill site.
Local officials aren’t buying it
South Carolina House Rep. David Martin (R, York) has been an opponent of Silfab’s location near Flint Hill Elementary since talks about putting the site there began more than two years ago. At Thursday’s school district press conference, Martin said he does not trust the company’s word.
“Until they [DES] finish their investigation and until the EPA finishes their investigation,” he said, “I can't wait to find out what the truth actually is at this point. But if Silfab is saying it right now, I absolutely am not believing it.”
According to Thursday’s DES letter, the agency remains “concerned about the close proximity of regulated substances to the assembly process coupled with the unknown root causes of recent spills.”
DES has also been working with the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate Silfab. EPA is expected to be on-site Monday.
A state bill gets new life
A House bill, H4293, which Martin filed in 2025, has gotten new life in the South Carolina Statehouse this week as a result of the Silfab incidents. The bill “allows local governments to pause operations until compliance can be verified,” Martin said at a House Medical, Military, Police and Municipal Affairs hearing on Thursday.
Essentially, the bill would give local zoning and planning officials the power to halt operations that they deems to be out of compliance with zoning laws, and seeks to make legal restraints to do so less cumbersome.
The Fort Mill School District has stated its support for H4293.
State House Rep. Josiah Magnuson (R, Spartanburg) questioned the practicality of the bill during the hearing, asking: “Doesn’t that seem like it could be misused and wouldn’t really be a check on power, it could be a potential free ticket for overreach.”
State Sen. Michael Johnson (R, York), who filed a companion bill, S530, last year said he is open to an amendment to keep that kind of thing from occurring.
Erica Wright of the Municipal Association of South Carolina said MASC is concerned about the issue of vested rights -- what a developer has when zoning permits are granted.
“And for us to go back and revoke said permit is going to open up local governments to lawsuits,” Wright said Thursday. “We want to mitigate that while honoring the intent of this bill.”
The committee will continue discussing H4239.
Meanwhile, York County officials issued a statement Thursday that “wholeheartedly endorses and applauds the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services’ decision to suspend operations at Silfab Solar.”
Zoning officials in York County had deemed Silfab to be not properly zoned when the project was first seeking approval. The York County Council approved the project in 2024 anyway.
Several court cases filed by citizens of York County to stop the construction and operations of Silfab have been dismissed.
