County Waste Turned into Energy in SRE Deal

Dorchester County Council unanimously approved final reading for three agreements with Southeast Renewable Energy LLC, including the company taking chipped wood waste for biomass fuel production from county landfills at no cost.

SRE is a biomass fuel development company, and announced it would invest $46 million and bring 20 jobs to the county for a biomass electrical facility.

During Monday's regular meeting in St. George, the county agreed to:

• Ensure the company-owned property remains in the joint-county industrial park for 30 years. Being in a multi-county industrial park allows the fee-in-lieu of tax agreement to be executed. Dorchester County will get 99 percent of the fees, and Orangeburg County will get 1 percent of the fees.
• Collect $258,649 per year for the next 30 years in fees through the fee-in-lieu of ad valorem taxes agreement. 
• Ensure the company a 6 percent assessment ratio and a fixed 30-year millage rate of 0.3675. 
• Provide the company with special source revenue credits to offset payments under the fee agreement.

In August, for the company. Monday's incentives were all unanimously agreed upon and no discussion was made among council members. 

According to County Administrator Jason Ward, SRE acquiring the wood waste should save the county $300,000 annually. Previously, some of the county's wood waste was used for mulching in public spaces, and the county will continue to do that in the future, Ward said.

Unlike other counties which may provide vegetative waste mulch, Dorchester County has never provided this from its landfills, Ward said. 

The county will continue to take in wood waste at Miles Jamison in Summerville and Sandy Pines in Dorchester, and chip it at Sandy Pines before sending on to SRE, according to Ward.

Not all mulch will make the grade for the company, however. In the agreement, the company reserved the right to reject woody waste based on quality.

The only load amount on the biomass agreement is that SRE reserved the right to limit woody material to 120,000 tons annually.