Jan 14 - The State (Columbia, S.C.)

SCE&G plans to upgrade its largest coal-fired power plant, near Eastover, with $200 million in "scrubbers" to improve air quality.

While that's good news to people concerned about air pollution, there are questions about SCE&G's plans to bury ash and gypsum -- byproducts of the new smokestack scrubbers -- at a proposed 140-acre landfill on plant property.

Many details about the landfill, to be located in the Wateree community, have yet to emerge -- including how much gypsum and ash will be buried there. But a community meeting tonight between company officials, state regulators and Lower Richland residents could provide answers.

Richland County Councilwoman Bernice Scott, who represents the area, said there is concern in the community.

"People heard that word landfill," she said, "and my phone started ringing off the hook."

Work could begin as early as March on a 35-acre area of the landfill, with disposal beginning early next year, according to SCE&G officials. The landfill, at its eventual 140-acre size, will give the company about 26 years of storage capacity, officials added.

SCE&G will keep a wooded buffer of about 200 feet between the site and public rights of way or private land, said SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower.

For years, the Eastover area plant has been criticized about air pollutants it releases into the surrounding community. Among them are sulfur dioxide, a lung irritant that contributes to hazy conditions, and mercury, a toxic metal that has tainted fish some people eat from the nearby Wateree River.

But coal waste also can be a concern, because it sometimes contains heavy metals from the scrubbing process.

Still, gypsum is not classified as a hazardous waste, said Adam Myrick, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, which will oversee SC&EG's proposed plans for pollution control equipment and decide whether to grant a landfill permit.

The new air equipment will allow SCE&G to meet new federal pollution rules, making the Wateree River plant one of the cleanest coal-burning power plants in the Southeast, Boomhower said.

It will eliminate 98 percent of sulfur dioxide emissions and 70 percent of mercury, he added, as part of federal efforts to limit the drift of pollutants from one state to the next. Scrubbers trap pollutants that would otherwise rise from smokestacks and disperse into the air.

Environmentalists and state officials say they're encouraged by the upgrades at the 38-year-old Wateree plant. SC&EG has more than a dozen coal-fired power plants in the state, and several have received upgrades.

"In general, the older coal-fired power plants are the ones most in need of emission-control upgrades, so it sounds like a very good thing," said John Clark, director of the S.C.Energy Office.

The SCE&G plant has been in the Eastover area for years, said Scott, who with state Rep. Jimmy Bales helped organize today's community meeting. But much more information is needed about the possible impact of the proposed landfill.

"They've been a neighbor, but I don't know good or bad," Scott said.

Reach Hinshaw at (803) 771-8641. Reach Fretwell at (803) 771-8537.

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