SEN. LARRY MARTIN and REP. DAVEY HIOTT

South Carolina is threatened by the importation of coal ash with inadequate protections for our communities and clean water. But we can do something about it.

In many places in America, millions of tons of coal ash have been stored in water-filled unlined pits, polluting groundwater, rivers, lakes and drinking water supplies. Because of community concerns and tightening legal requirements, utilities and other producers of coal ash are moving toward storing coal ash dry, away from waterways.

In fact, in South Carolina, all our utilities have agreed to remove their coal ash from unlined lagoons along our rivers and lakes. Significantly, all our utilities have agreed to place their coal ash in lined Class 3 landfills. Class 3 sets out the standards for industrial solid waste landfills and includes protections for communities and clean water.

However, in Pickens County, there is an attempt to bring coal ash into South Carolina and put it in a Class 2 landfill.

Pickens County agreed to allow a private landfill company to build a Class 2 landfill next to the County’s industrial development park. A Class 2 landfill receives construction debris, like stumps, logs, bricks, old cement and used timber.

As a result, the requirements for a Class 2 landfill are less than those for a Class 3 landfill and provide less protection for communities and clean water, since the contents of a Class 2 landfill present less cause for concern.

Without notice to the public, the landfill operator has tried to get permission from DHEC to bring coal ash into the state and store it in this Class 2 landfill. This request is based on the supposed fact that this coal ash is less toxic than other coal ash. The amount of coal ash to be brought into the state could be as much as 500,000 tons per year, whereas the original Class 2 permit allows just over 70,000 tons of construction debris per year. DHEC has approved a liner, but this site has not gone through the process required for a Class 3 landfill, and we have no guarantee that it will have all the protections of a Class 3 landfill. Further, the toxic nature of the coal ash will be determined by tests through sampling, performed by contractors hired by either the landfill operator or the producer of the ash.

Strikingly, the landfill operator has refused to say where the coal ash is coming from. The landfill operator also has not been answering questions from the press. But what is clear is that the landfill operator is taking a limited Class 2 landfill that was approved in order to dispose of construction and demolition debris on behalf of the citizens of Pickens County and is trying to convert it into a large coal ash dump for the benefit of those who don’t live here.

Many other communities in South Carolina could face the same threat, because there are many Class 2 landfills across the state. In the coming years, many utilities throughout the country will be seeking places to dispose of their coal ash.

Communities throughout the country have found that when coal ash is stored without adequate protections, groundwater can be contaminated, drinking water supplies can be compromised, and lakes, rivers and drinking water reservoirs can be polluted. We cannot afford to risk our natural beauty or the health of our communities on less stringent standards.

We thank our colleagues in the General Assembly for positively responding to our legislation to put in place legal requirements to protect Pickens County and communities throughout South Carolina from this risk. South Carolina’s Code of Laws should require that coal ash stored or disposed of in this state should be stored in a Class 3 landfill. That’s what our utilities are doing. That is the category of landfill for industrial solid waste.That is a category that offers our communities and clean water greater protection. That law will make sure that Pickens County and other communities will not be faced with a limited Class 2 landfill being converted into a huge coal ash dump.

Pickens County and all of South Carolina deserve no less.

Larry Martin represents District 2 in the South Carolina Senate. Davey Hiott represents District 4 in the state House.