More than 100 gather to learn about updated air proposal

By Jamie Durant
Morning News Health/Environmental Reporter
Published: July 22, 2008

PAMPLICO — More than 100 people gathered Tuesday to learn about the updated air proposal Santee Cooper submitted to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) for the proposed Pee Dee Energy Campus.

The $1.25 billion project, a 600-megawatt coal-fired generation facility, is proposed to be located on a 2,709-acre tract along the Great Pee Dee River.

During the meeting, which was held at Hannah-Pamplico High School, Santee Cooper spokeswoman Laura Varn said despite the many opponents to the project, she believes it will meet the requirements needed to be built in the Kingsburg area.

“We welcome the opportunity for people to ask more questions,” she said. “We think as people know the facts about what we are doing, they will feel good that we are doing all we can to minimize mercury emissions.”

Varn said the plans for the facility are to only build one power generating unit, and if the need arises in the future for more power, she said they hope nuclear energy will be more accessible by that time.

Nearly 50 opponents of the coal-fired power plant gathered outside the high school before the public meeting to explain why they feel the facility would be detrimental to the health and prosperity of Pee Dee residents.

One of the opponents’ chief complaints was the amount of mercury the power plant will produce, which eventually will make its way into the already mercury laden Great Pee Dee River. According to Santee Cooper documents, the Pee Dee Energy Campus will release 57 pounds of mercury into the environment a year once it is completely functional. Blan Holman, an attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, says that is too much, when considering a coal-fired generation facility built by Dominion Power in Virginia releases only four pounds a year.

“They say (the Dominion plant) burns different fuel, but our position is that that (they) can do at least as well,” Holman said.

Varn, however, said the comparison is not a valid one, since the facility Holman mentioned produces much higher quantities of carbon, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.

“There’s a couple major reasons why that’s not an apples to apples comparison,” she said. “In fact, it releases 20 percent more carbon emissions per unit and because it has a higher ash content that has to be landfilled.”

John Ramsburgh, director of the S.C. Chapter of the Sierra Club, asked the gathered crowd to raise their hands if they lived in a 50-mile radius of the plant to prove that not all people opposed to the facility are from conservation groups living outside of the area where the plant is proposed to be built.

Roughly two-thirds of the people surrounding Ramsburgh raised their hands in response.

“There has been a lot of assertions that it has been non-local groups opposing this coal plant,” he said.

After the show of hands, Ramsburgh said he thinks it showed definitively that local people are just as concerned about the issue as non-local people.

Pamplico Mayor Gene Gainey said he hopes Santee Cooper does get the approval to begin building, since he thinks the project will be a boon to a downtrodden region of the Pee Dee.

“I’ve been 100 percent in favor of it since this all started,” he said. “In the long range, it will probably bring in more industries to work alongside of Santee Cooper. It’s going to have a big impact.”