CORDOVA – Orangeburg County’s hazardous materials team was called to the Cordova area Friday after a couple stumbled across the gruesome scene of several dead animals.

Orangeburg County Emergency Services Director John Smith said an unknown liquid chemical was disposed of in a wooded area off Comforter Lane just outside the town limits of Cordova.

“Apparently, somebody dumped some stuff in the woods illegally,” Smith said. “We have a half-dozen dead animals in the woods from their eating it.”

A plastic bucket bearing no label or markings was found overturned at the site with the chemical having poured onto the ground.

Smith said the affected site, about 500 yards off Cordova Road, has been cordoned off and will pose no threat after the chemical is cleaned up. Officials say the chemical is not airborne and should not pose any threat to the residents nearby.

Richard and Holly Barton were searching the woods several hundred yards from their Comforter Lane home Friday morning when they came upon the dead animals.

“At first I thought somebody had killed a bunch of buzzards,” Richard said. “Then I saw a white bucket with a whole bunch of dead flies on it. And that right there told me it wasn’t safe.”

The Bartons called the state Department of Natural Resources to report the dead birds.

Officials say they don’t know how long the chemical was at the site.

However, Holly said the birds didn’t appear to have been at the scene for long. Some had their wings stretched out as if they were about to take off, she said.

“So that tells me they didn’t have a chance to fly off,” she said. “Whatever it was got them quick.”

“They’re the only thing on God’s earth that can eat botulism and not die,” Richard said of the vultures.

Smith said the county’s emergency services officials and HAZMAT team were notified around 3:20 p.m.

“We didn’t know what we had, liquid, airborne, or what,” he said.

When officials arrived at the scene, they found the overturned bucket along with four dead vultures, one deer and two opossums.

Smith says the poison apparently seeped into a water pool which was then used by the animals. It could take several days to determine just what the chemical is.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control was in the process Friday afternoon of collecting a sample from a small amount of residue left inside the bucket to identify what was spilled.

The agency then planned to clean up the spill and surrounding area, eliminating the threat of contaminating a nearby creek, Smith said. The clean-up process should be completed by today.

Officials believe there was no threat to people in the surrounding area unless they made direct contact with the unknown liquid.

Once the chemical is identified, authorities say they will try to figure out how a poison came to be at the watering hole.

Richard and Holly say they’re saddened at the loss of the animals, even the vultures. But they’re thankful no human got into the chemical before they found it.

“This could have seeped into the creek down there, gone down into the pond and then somebody gets sick eating a fish they caught,” Richard said.

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516.

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