Sun sets on bill to defray costs of toxic waste dump with solar power

COLUMBIA, SC A bill intended to boost solar energy in South Carolina while defraying the costs of a state-maintained toxic waste dump died Thursday in the Legislature after a handful of lawmakers questioned the legislation.

The bill would have provided a 25 percent income tax credit for anyone seeking to establish a solar farm at the closed hazardous waste landfill next to Lake Marion. Boosters of the plan said revenues from a solar farm could help offset the $4 million annual public cost of maintaining the dump so it won’t leak into the big lake in Sumter County.

But the bill, approved this week after a major fight in the House, became bogged down in the Senate, leaving no time to approve the measure before the 2016 legislative session ended for the year Thursday. Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, was among those questioning the bill.

Bright said he didn’t oppose the idea of a tax break to bring solar to the Pinewood site, but had general concerns about the bill that were too substantial to resolve before the session ended.

Reps. James Smith, D-Richland, and Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, said utilities helped squelch the legislation. Bright said he had not spoken directly with a utility representative but with fellow lawmakers familiar with utility issues.

“Utilities were expressing opposition under the radar,’’ James Smith said. “Anything that helps advance renewable clean energy, they have come to the table kicking and screaming.’’

He declined to name which utilities he was referring to. But he, Murrell Smith and Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, said the bill’s failure hurts the possibility that a solar farm could be established at the dump near the tiny Pinewood community.

“I can’t say there is no chance, but it certainly lessons chances of us having a solar company invest in Pinewood,’’ Murrell Smith said. “My understanding is the business model to make a solar energy farm work requires some tax credits.’’

He said lease payments from a company to operate a solar farm at the landfill site could help reduce the amount of money taxpayers must spend. The landfill’s management company has been discussing the idea of a solar farm as part of a broader strategy to offset costs at the waste dump.

The public pays about $4 million a year to manage the dump because the site’s former operator filed for bankruptcy without leaving enough money to maintain the landfill. This year, the Legislature also approved another $5.2 million for recommended improvements and repairs at the aging landfill.

The 279-acre dump opened in the late 1970s and closed in 2000. It sits just a few football fields from 100,000-acre Lake Marion, the state’s largest recreational reservoir and a drinking water source for thousands of people.

Studies indicate the dump could leak without site improvements and annual management of toxic water that builds up in the old burial pits.

The failure of the Legislature to pass the bill also hurts South Carolina’s effort to continue expanding solar energy across the state, supporters of the bill said. Once one of the country’s least friendly states for solar power, South Carolina has liberalized many laws to improve the environment for solar energy. Power companies had long expressed reservations about solar power, worrying that it could cut into their profits.

The bill, S 626, would have added to the solar expansion effort by providing sharp reductions in taxes that homeowners and businesses had to pay when they install sun power. The House approved the bill 54-36 Tuesday night after some lawmakers said solar energy receives too many tax breaks. Supporters said solar tax breaks would improve the market for a clean and cheap energy source.

Bright said the legislation can be debated next year.

“I told Sen. McElveen I wanted to help him; Pinewood is a real problem,’’ Bright said. “If that was the only part of the bill, then it would have been easier to handle. We were trying to negotiate something to make everybody happy.

“We just didn’t make it. That happens on the last day. It’s frustrating.’’

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Sun sets on bill to defray costs of toxic waste dump with solar power."