Discharge from utility's plant feeds into Wateree River - March 8, 2010 - The State
By SAMMY FRETWELL
sfretwell@thestate.com
A utility with a history of arsenic pollution near Eastover no longer faces state limits on how much of the toxic material it can dump in the Wateree River.

Responding to a request by SCE&G, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control recently agreed to eliminate arsenic limits in a wastewater discharge permit for the utility's power station upstream from Congaree National Park.

River protection advocates say they are dismayed by DHEC's decision, which is not yet final. Having no limits could allow SCE&G to release more of the poisonous material from its coal waste ponds - already a source of groundwater contamination, critics say.

"Why would you remove a limit on something that is essentially already a problem?" asked Catawba Riverkeeper David Merryman, who also tracks issues on the Wateree.

For now, state officials say they have no reason to believe the discharges will hurt water quality in the river. But SCE&G and state regulators say they will keep an eye on the discharges.

SCE&G needs the discharge permit for its coal ash ponds because wastewater from the ponds runs into the Wateree River. The ponds take waste from the company's 40-year-old coal-fired plant. They soon also will take wastewater that will build up in the company's new 17-story landfill nearby.

"Modifying the permit will not change how we operate the Wateree station," utility spokesman Robert Yanity said. "We're still committed to minimizing our impact on the environment."

Merryman, supporters of Congaree National Park, Sierra Club members and Rep. James Smith are among those expected at a public meeting this week to discuss the DHEC discharge plan. The department will hold a 6:30 p.m. session Tuesday at Eastover's Webber Elementary School. SCE&G also will have representatives at the meeting.

It's an important issue for groups that advocate protecting the Wateree. The river winds past South Carolina's only national park and is just upstream from Lake Marion, a drinking water source and popular recreational reservoir. The river near Eastover is itself a popular fishing spot and is the dividing line between Richland and Sumter counties.

Since the 1990s, high levels of arsenic, a suspected carcinogen, have been found in groundwater and in seepage to the Wateree from coal ash ponds at SCE&G's power plant on U.S. 601, according to DHEC records, private consulting reports and court records. Some arsenic-polluted fish have been found in the river near the coal ponds.

Despite that, state regulators have said the river remains relatively free of arsenic.

Smith, D-Richland, and co-counsel Bob Guild detailed recent pollution from the site during a court case that challenged the new SCE&G landfill. A consultant they hired last fall found arsenic-laced groundwater seeping out of an embankment near the company's coal pond and into the Wateree River. The arsenic levels, also documented by an SCE&G consultant in September, were up to 190 times higher than the federal safe drinking water standard. The new landfill will add possibly more arsenic to SCE&G's coal waste ponds.

"Given the history of this location, the department is headed in the wrong direction to protect public health," Smith said of DHEC. "I wish they would show a greater deal of interest in the poor quality of the containment for those toxic materials down there."

Arsenic is a poisonous, naturally occurring element that also is created by industrial practices, such as burning coal. Pesticides used in farming also sometimes contain arsenic. Short-term exposure in high enough doses can cause nausea, vomiting, skin disorders and death. Long-term exposure to certain forms of arsenic has been linked to cancer. People are often exposed to arsenic through drinking water or eating food.

DHEC declined to make agency water quality experts available to The State newspaper. In a written statement, DHEC cited several related factors for the decision:

- The agency doesn't believe SCE&G's legal discharges will lower water quality in the river. Discharge limits are based on the "reasonable potential" that a pollutant will hurt water quality.

"Based on arsenic data provided by the facility ... a statistical evaluation showed that this discharge does not have the potential to exceed water quality standards instream after mixing with the Wateree River," according to a response from DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick.

In making its calculations, the agency took into account the nearly undetectable amount of arsenic already in the river.

- In 2008, South Carolina's water quality standards for arsenic became less restrictive. DHEC's governing board voted to make the change. The change was made because of uncertainties at the federal level about "the scientific validity" of factors used to set water standards for arsenic.

The standard the agency now applies for arsenic in the river dropped from 18 parts per trillion to 10 parts per billion, according to a Dec. 3 order by Administrative Law Judge Carolyn Matthews. The standard is based on the threat to human health.

Matthews' order upheld SCE&G's current discharge permit, which had been challenged by a Lower Richland farmer.

DHEC said it used the less restrictive 10 parts per billion standard to show the discharges would not hurt the Wateree.

It was not clear from DHEC's written responses whether the agency thinks the change in state law forced it to loosen the permit. But federal law contains a provision known as the "anti-backsliding" rule that is intended to prevent companies holding permits from getting looser limits at a later date, said Guild and Jimmy Chandler, among the state's most knowledgeable environmental attorneys.

Until the limits were dropped, Matthews' Dec. 3 order says the existing permit capped arsenic discharges at 27 parts per billion on average and 40 parts per billion daily.

Guild said DHEC's decision to drop arsenic limits shows how willing the agency is to support a powerful industry. SCE&G is the prime subsidiary of SCANA, a $10 billion Fortune 500 company. The power company has 652,000 retail and wholesale customers.

"If ever there was evidence of how tone deaf this agency is, it's this exercise at the Wateree plant," Guild said. "The idea that, instead of tightening limits, they would reduce them is really outrageous."

Pollution from coal waste sites has gained national attention since a December 2008 spill sent one billion gallons of contaminated material across an east Tennessee valley. Nationally, there are about 100 documented cases in which coal-fired power plants have polluted water or wetlands - including at SCE&G's Wateree power plant, according to a report last month by two national environmental groups.

DHEC says it will require SCE&G to monitor for arsenic and report on its findings. If the findings show a need for arsenic controls, DHEC will require a limit, the department's written response to the newspaper said. DHEC officials said in the written response that the SCE&G discharges bear watching because the company will begin sending another type of waste into the ponds.

The power company's landfill will take waste generated by a new air pollution control process at the Wateree power station. Water that collects in the landfill will be sent to the coal waste ponds, which already have ash in them from years of burning coal. The waste will include traces of toxic materials that could wind up in existing coal waste ponds.
Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537.