Published Tuesday, October 28, 1997, in The State -- Columbia, South Carolina.
Nuclear dump to dangle big carrot
By MICHAEL SPONHOUR
Staff Writer
The Barnwell low-level nuclear landfill could be a billion dollar cash cow for South Carolina, if lawmakers are willing to keep the controversial facility open for at least two decades.
While Barnwell operator Chem-Nuclear Systems Inc. has conceded it is looking to boost business at the struggling facility, an industry newsletter suggests that what the company calls its "Success Plan" is already being pitched to waste producers.
According to Low-Level Waste Notes -- a Washington, D.C. -based newsletter written for waste specialists and handlers -- Chem-Nuclear plans as early as next month to start taking down payments on contracts to dump waste at the facility well into the next century.
With those potential contracts in hand, Chem-Nuclear would then ask the General Assembly to guarantee that Barnwell will remain open for at least 20 years.
By selling most of the landfill's future capacity, the special state fund that pays for college scholarships and school construction could realize a $1 billion windfall. Investment earnings from the fund could produce $84 million annually for those purposes.
"There are a lot of options we are talking about, and that is certainly one,” said Chem-Nuclear spokesman David Ebenhack "Nothing at all has been finalized. To the details, I can't respond at the moment."
Company officials are scrambling to improve business, which has fallen far short of promises made in 1995. Lawmakers that year went along with Gov. David Beasley's plan to open the facility to the nation's waste and withdraw from a regional compact.
Currently, the landfill is expected to have enough room to stay open for 14 to 21 years, according to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
However, that's just an estimate based upon current business at the site. Nothing prevents the General Assembly from voting in the future to close the landfill immediately.
Chem-Nuclear plans to begin selling “subscriptions” to the landfill as early as Nov. 1, the newsletter reported. Under that plan, waste generators would make a $3 per cubic foot down payment for the right to dump at the site in the future. A minimum 100 cubic foot purchase would be required.
If the General Assembly agrees to guarantee that Barnwell will remain open, the waste generators would then owe another $232 per cubic foot by Oct.31, 1998. Of that, about $200 would go to a state trust fund for education, the newsletter reported. Chem-Nuclear would get the remaining $35.
The plan would not change the current price structure or waste mixture.
Should Chem-Nuclear meet its goal of selling 5 million cubic feet of future space, that would produce a $1 billion trust fund. That amount would equal about two-thirds of the remaining space at the landfill.
With signed contracts, the company would be able to approach lawmakers in January with guaranteed money in hand. That would be a huge lobbying advantage for the firm, whose previous financial promises have fallen short.
"They want to go to the Legislature and say, 'Look at this nice pot of money you'll have if you say yes,'" said Kathryn Haynes, executive director of the Southeast Compact Commission, who attended an Oct. 8 invitation-only meeting at which Chem-Nuclear officials outlined their strategy.
The commission is one of 10 regional bodies charged by Congress with creating regional plans for handling low-level waste. South Carolina quit the group in 1995 after Beasley complained it was too slow to open a landfill to take the place of Barnwell.
Waiting for details. Beasley is not eager to revisit the issue.
"Its not something we're interested in," said spokesman Gary Karr. "if they want to go to the Legislature, so be it."
However, key House leaders left the door open to the proposal.
"We've got to see the plan before we can pass judgment," said House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville. 1'It's premature to say that it is an idea worth discussing or not worth discussing. The devil is in the details."
House Speaker Pro Tern Terry Haskins, R-Greenville, said much will depend on Chem-Nuclear's ability to win signed contracts before the legislative session starts in January.
"It could possibly have some appeal if there is real interest out there among the generators," said Haskins, a leading Barnwell supporter. "It may have worked better if they had gotten some of the legislators on their side before they started the process."
Some vowed to avoid the whole issue.
"That ain't on my agenda," said Rep. John Felder, R-Calhoun, another of Chem-Nuclear's top supporters in the past. "I have had all the Barnwell I can handle in one lifetime."
A new market. Chem-Nuclear's plan would also create a speculative market in Barnwell landfill futures. Companies that bought dumping rights would be free to sell them to other firms or brokers.
Barnwell critic Rep. Bob Sheheen, D-Kershaw, thinks the plan is a lousy idea. Private investors -- not South Carolina -- would profit from secondary trade in those dumping rights. Once the current landfill is sold out, Chem-Nuclear will want to expand the site, Sheheen predicted.
"They won't be satisfied even if they get everything they want this time," Sheheen said. "They want more and more and more. It's an insatiable appetite."
For waste generators like nuclear power utilities, the deal would provide security.
Producers would get a set price and a guaranteed spot in the landfill, even if they don't use it for years. The Barnwell site is one of just two low-level nuclear landfills in operation. Opening new sites has proven monumentally difficult politically.
"It sounds pretty aggressive to me and it's also a pretty novel idea," said Rick Jacoby, who heads a Texas agency hoping to open a low-level dump in 1999. "If someone could market assured capacity at fixed prices, that might seem like a good idea."
But Jacoby and others are skeptical about whether Chem-Nuclear could manage to sell the huge volume of landfill space in the next few months.
Many waste producers would have to take out loans to pay for future space in the landfill, driving up costs, Haynes said.
"That's a lot of waste and that's a lot of money" she said. "I've not heard keen interest on the part of the generators to do that."
The plan could also hurt the Southeastern Compact's effort to open a low-level nuclear landfill in Wake County, N.C. While that seven-state body can order all waste producers in its region to use the new landfill, that might prove unpopular if many firms already have long- term deals with Barnwell, Haynes said.
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