Photos: Creek Cleanup a Success

Lexington County Sheriff’s Department code enforcement officers and resident deputies removed 8,640 pounds of trash, including 270 old tires and the remnants of a clandestine meth lab, from a creek along Zane Lane and a utility right-of-way off Laura Brodie Road near Batesburg-Leesville. 

Lexington County Sheriff James Metts said deputies spent a full-day this past Friday removing the trash, which serves as a tributary for the North Edisto River.

Code enforcement officers Erich Ackermann, Johnny Bryant, John Hatchell and Ty Haigler, Resident Deputy Joe Auckerman, who serves the Gilbert, Hollow Creek and Summit communities, Batesburg-Leesville Resident Deputy Jacob Hallman and Capt. Hampton Taylor, commander of the West Region patrol district, participated in the clean-up effort, Metts said.

Haigler coordinated the effort to clean up the creek and utility right-of-way, Metts said. Haigler serves as a code enforcement officer in the West Region Patrol District, which is based near Gilbert.

During the clean-up effort at the creek, deputies found several bags of trash along the banks of the creek that contained waste from a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory, Metts said. 

Deputies requested assistance from officers with the Lexington County Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team (NET). NET officers responded to the creek and safely disposed of the waste from the methamphetamine laboratory.