Confidential Georgia documents recovered in S Carolina trash

GREENVILLE, S.C. - Confidential documents from a Georgia state agency that should have been destroyed when they were discarded have been found in a South Carolina landfill, the agency confirmed in a statement this week.

The documents from the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services were found among piles of trash in Graniteville, South Carolina, last week, Aiken County Administrator Clay Killian said. She added that the Georgia agency was immediately notified. The files should have been shredded or burned, according to Department of Human Services Information Security Guidelines obtained by news outlets.

The agency is working to ensure the information on the documents is protected, said Chris Hempfling, deputy division director and general counsel for Family and Children Services.

The recovered documents were being stored in a secure warehouse in Richmond County, Georgia, Hempfling confirmed. Officials didn’t say how they think the documents ended up in the landfill across state lines or who might be responsible for the dump.

Killian said the South Carolina disposal company “would not knowingly accept material from outside Aiken County.”