Published Tuesday, February 15, 2000
The State Columbia, S.C.Hodges confident waste bill will pass
By CHUCK CARROLL
Many of the obstacles that have dogged South Carolina's efforts to shake its role as "the nation's nuclear dumping ground" have been eliminated, Gov. Jim Hodges said Monday.
Staff WriterFlanked outside his office by members of a diverse task force that spent months studying the low-level nuclear waste issue, Hodges presented his bill for accomplishing a goal that has eluded environment-minded lawmakers for years.
The bill envisions South Carolina closing its borders to nuclear waste from all but two other states by 2008.
"Once enacted, this new law will finally give South Carolina the power to control who may send nuclear waste to the state-owned nuclear disposal site in Barnwell County," Hodges said. "South Carolina will no longer be the nation's nuclear dumping ground."
Just as important, South Carolina would be able to preserve enough space in the Barnwell facility for the disposal of its nuclear reactors in 30 to 50 years. Space is dwindling rapidly because South Carolina cannot turn away waste from any other state without running afoul of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits states from interfering with interstate commerce.
To get around that problem, the state would join a congressionally pre-approved waste disposal agreement with Connecticut and New Jersey. The three states would make up the Atlantic Compact. The member states would be assured of the ability to dispose of their own waste and exclude waste from nonmember states.
But the plan calls for the compact to allow nonmember states to use the facility through the next fiscal year, which ends in June 2001.
After that, the compact would gradually shut off access to nonmember states through 2008, with a 50 percent reduction by the second year.
Advocates said this arrangement would soften the blow on the nuclear industry, Barnwell County and site operator Chem-Nuclear.
Equally important, the impact on the state budget would be more manageable. As the flow of waste going to the site declines, so will the flow of money to the state. The $44 million that comes from disposal fees is used for college scholarships and for school construction statewide -- money that lawmakers will have to replace.
New Jersey and Connecticut would give $12 million to the Barnwell County community to compensate for economic dislocation as revenues dwindle. Chem-Nuclear, whose profits are currently not controlled, would be allowed to make a 29 percent profit.
Hodges said preserving the remaining space in Barnwell will pressure other parts of the country to open their own disposal sites.
Passage of the bill would fulfill a promise Hodges made during his 1998 campaign. He said Monday that the task force had done a good job accommodating the stakeholders.
"When this process started, a lot of folks thought that they couldn't do what has been done, and that is bringing together environmental groups and the utility industry and the environmental community around a plan that we think can both reduce waste volume and be sensitive to the needs of the (Barnwell) community and preserve space long-term for the waste from our own energy facilities," Hodges said.
Hodges said that should make it a lot easier to pass the legislation.
"Frankly, in the past, when nuclear waste legislation came forward you tended to have people with environmental concerns pitted against the Barnwell community and also the utility industries in South Carolina," he said. "Things have changed with this legislation because everyone is on the same side."