Council Reverses Reading on Coal Ash Zoning

Dorchester County Council reversed a previous zoning amendment reading that would allow the conversion of the current South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. coal ash storage facility from a wet to a dry system Sept. 19.

SCE&G now considers its current Dorchester County coal ash storage site "preferential" compared with the vacant property it purchased for the dry ash storage in Colleton County, but will continue to seek permitting and zoning for each location, according to company spokesman Robert Yanity. 

Dorchester County Council Chair Larry Hargett said the decision was because council didn't want to get "in front" of the permitting process and not a move to prevent the conversion. Colleton County zoning has denied the permit for constructing the dry ash storage facility on the company's vacant land, which the company has appealed. 

The Dorchester County decision came after council met in executive session on the matter. After coming back into open session, members voted to reverse the reading and to wait out the process.

At the current Dorchester County site, coal ash — or spoil from coal plants, which includes toxic metals but with leaching methods "rarely" ruled as hazardous waste — is pushed through pipes over the Edisto River and collected into two ash ponds in a method called wet ash. If permitting goes through for this site, SCE&G could invest $60 million in converting the site to a dry ash system, according to Hargett.

"The new proposed way of operating and the way of handling coal ash out there is far better than the old way and everybody who has looked at it and evaluated it has agreed," he said. 

Instead of piping the wet ash over the river, the dry ash would be trucked in, and the system would decrease its footprint, according to Yanity. Yanity also said the dry ash system was environmentally friendly.

In 2008, Tennessee experienced an environmental disaster with a wet coal storage facility. A retaining wall at the Kingston Fossil Plant, about 40 miles west of Knoxville, gave way Dec. 22, 2008, causing destruction along the river. 

Click here to read more about the post-disaster trial going on now in Tennessee.

Yanity described Dorchester County's existing site as the better of the two options, despite its continued presence near the Edisto River and extra expense of conversion.

However, Yanity would not rule out the company still building a new dry ash storage in Colleton County and said if that were to happen, the company would continue its wet ash storage in operation in Dorchester County.

"We're not ruling out the Colleton site. We're still going through that process," Yanity said. Dorchester County's site was originally dismissed due to the cost of conversion, but now it is still the top choice for location, he said.

He added that it was "too early to tell" which way the company would go if both sites were approved.

And "too early" summarizes much of the coal ash plant permitting, which is expected to take five-to-seven years, according to Yanity.