DHEC pollution deal raises questions

State regulators have quietly struck an agreement with SCE&G to clean up some of the toxic mess created by decades of burning coal to make power in lower Richland County.

But the accord allows SCE&G to quit the agreement at any time and it would not directly address polluted groundwater at the company’s Wateree power station.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Oct. 14 agreement with SCE&G was unearthed recently by environmental lawyers seeking to learn more about contamination beneath the 41-year-old coal plant.

Of major concern is the potential for arsenic to pollute people’s drinking water in the largely rural area southeast of Columbia.

Arsenic, a poison found in coal waste, can cause upset stomachs, numbness of the hands and feet and partial paralysis, depending on a person’s exposure. It also has been linked to bladder, liver and prostate cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

At the SCE&G power plant near Eastover, the odorless toxin has contaminated groundwater at levels hundreds of times the safe drinking water standard. So far, power company officials say the pollution has not moved into groundwater off the site. But records show arsenic has seeped into the Wateree River above Congaree National Park.

In its Oct. 14 agreement with DHEC, SCE&G says it will remove all ash from existing coal waste ponds by Jan. 1, 2022, and expand a landfill at the power plant to accommodate the arsenic-contaminated material.

Frank Holleman, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said DHEC’s agreement with SCE&G does little to stop pollution from the power plant’s ash ponds anytime soon. The ponds contain more than 2 million pounds of coal ash today, Holleman said.

“We face another decade of these ponds,” he said. “It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”

Holleman also said the agreement doesn’t address cleaning up any groundwater already polluted by toxic coal ash. Nor does it guarantee the ash will ever be removed from the ponds, since either DHEC or SCE&G can quit the accord at any time.

The environmental agency cited SCE&G for contaminating groundwater, but chose not to fine the company. But SCE&G agreed to try to reduce the groundwater contamination.

DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick declined comment Tuesday.

Robert Yanity, a spokesman for the power company, said SCE&G has submitted a comprehensive cleanup plan to DHEC and is “committed to moving that ash out of the ash ponds and into dry ash storage.” The company intends to dig up polluted soil beneath the contaminated ash once it is removed, he said. That should eliminate the threat of future contamination, he said.

SCE&G has also shored up ash pond walls with clay and added a protective plastic liner to prevent leaks, which is what critics have said was needed, Yanity said. Attorneys for a lower Richland farmer discovered two years ago that the earthen walls around the ash ponds were leaking and that contaminated water was trickling into the river.

“We have mitigated the seeps,” Yanity said. “We have not seen anything out of compliance since doing that. As I understand it, that has been taken care of.”

Concerns over the SCE&G site are among a range of questions about pollution from coal ash ponds across the state and nation. A catastrophic spill from a Tennessee lagoon in December 2008 heightened awareness about pollution from ash ponds.

The federal government is now trying to decide whether to crack down on coal waste ponds by declaring the ash hazardous waste. If the agency does that, it is likely that most ponds will be closed, including about 20 in South Carolina. Yanity said SCE&G is in the process of closing coal ponds at sites across the state.

A report released last week by the Environmental Integrity Project documented more evidence of arsenic contamination at coal-fired power plants in South Carolina and other parts of the nation. The report found levels of arsenic above safe drinking water standards at two power plants operated by state-owned Santee Cooper, as well as two run by SCE&G, including the Wateree station. The Environmental Integrity Project is a conservation group founded by a former EPA official.

At the Wateree station, the group’s report said levels of arsenic were so high they exceeded the federal safe drinking water standard by more than 500 times. That’s more arsenic than the amount found in some forms of hazardous waste, the report says. As late as last year, arsenic contamination still exceeded the federal safe drinking water standard by more than 100 times, according to the group’s study, which is based on a review of state test results for groundwater near the plant.

In addition to the elevated arsenic levels at the Wateree Station, the group also in the past five years documented pollutants in groundwater above the safe drinking water standard at:

• SCE&G’s McMeekin coal plant on Lake Murray, which registered chromium and lead.

• Santee Cooper’s Winyah station near Georgetown and its Cross station near Lake Moultrie, which also registered levels of arsenic that exceeded the safe drinking water standard.

• Santee Cooper’s Grainger station near Conway and SCE&G’s Urquhart station near Beech Island. Both registered arsenic at more than 100 times the safe drinking water standard.