Published June 8, 2000
The State
Columbia, S.C.Hodges signs limit on flow of nuke waste to Barnwell
Landfill to be open only to South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut
By SAMMY FRETWELL
By 2008, South Carolina will no longer accept shipments of low-level nuclear garbage from most of the nation -- and that suits Gov. Jim Hodges.
Staff WriterA new law Hodges signed shuts off the landfill to every state but South Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey, which will be limited in the amount oflow-level garbage they can bury at the Barnwell County site. Since 1995, any state in the country could send waste to South Carolina.
Hodges and supporters of the new law, who held a news conference Wednesday, said the shutdown will be phased in during the next eight years.
"It's a win for the environment, it's a win for the Barnwell community, it's a win for the business community in South Carolina," Hodges said.
The Democratic governor's statements cap more than a decade of fighting about whether the state should shutter the landfill. The dump is one of just three of its kind in the country, and the only one open nationally to all forms of low-level nuclear waste.
Hodges campaigned to close the dump when he ran against Republican Gov David Beasley two years ago. At the prodding of Beasley and site operator Chem-Nuclear, the Legislature scrapped plans to close the landfill in 1995, partially in an attempt to raise money for schools.
But this year, South Carolina legislators relied on a study commissioned by Hodges to close the landfill to all states but New Jersey and Connecticut. South Carolina will join those states in the new Atlantic Compact.
As part of the deal, New Jersey and Connecticut will pay South Carolina $12 million for the right to continue disposing of waste in Barnwell County, according to the law. Additional money also will go to the state from landfill revenue.
Those states do not, however, have to develop a landfill to replace the one in Barnwell County.
South Carolina companies also would continue having access to the site. The landfill accepts radiation-tinged materials primarily from universities, hospitals and nuclear power plants.
Rep. Bob Sheheen, a former state House speaker who is retiring this year, said the law Hodges signed finally brings closure to an issue that should have been resolved years ago.
The law tells people South Carolina doesn't want to be a dumping ground for the nation, but, Sheheen said, "it's not an environmental victory.
"An environmental victory would be to remove all that waste from underground in Barnwell and eliminate the possibility of anything happening that would be detrimental to the environment," the Kershaw County Democrat said.
South Carolina's action again thrusts the state into the national spotlight of nuclear waste disposal. States not in the compact must now find another disposal site or develop their own low-level waste burial grounds.
Many states had plans to build their own low-level waste dumps until South Carolina reopened the Barnwell landfill to the nation in 1995. Now, other states must develop landfills or hope that a landfill in Utah becomes available for their wastes.
"I sent the message early on . that their free ride was going to end," Hodges said. "I think they all wish that we would continue to allow them to put their nuclear waste in our soil. But that simply was unacceptable."
Chem-Nuclear says some jobs may be eliminated at the site as states stop shipping to Barnwell. But those employees could be reassigned. The company employs about 100 people in Barnwell County. About two-thirds of them work at the site.
"I think there will be some shrinkage of the work force, but I don't think it will be significant," company spokesman David Ebenhack said.