COLUMBIA, South Carolina, April 13, 2009 (ENS) - A lawsuit filed today by the Southern Environmental Law Center on behalf of state and national advocacy groups claims that South Carolina's environmental agency illegally permitted an unneeded coal-fired power plant on the Great Pee Dee River that would emit 31 times more toxic mercury than the legal limit and millions of tons of greenhouse gases.
In filing today's challenge in South Carolina Administrative Law Court, the SELC represents Environmental Defense Fund, League of Women Voters of South Carolina, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League, the South Carolina Wildlife Federation, and the Sierra Club. The contested case is filed against the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
"This plant would add mercury pollution to an already contaminated region of the Pee Dee, but DHEC waived the maximum mercury controls required by law," said SELC attorney Blan Holman.
In February, the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control in a split vote upheld the agency's decision in December to give state-owned electric utility Santee Cooper an air pollution permit.
"The tragedy of DHEC's decision is that we have far cheaper and cleaner options than a $2.5 billion coal plant, and those options would generate thousands more jobs than this dinosaur ever would," Holman said.
Under the permit, the 600-megawatt coal-fired plant would be located adjacent to the Great Pee Dee River in Florence County near Kingsburg.
Remnants of a bridge across the Great Pee Dee River (Photo by Chris Mico)
"This facility will be a high efficiency, pulverized coal unit and will utilize the most state-of-the-art environmental control technology, resulting in one of the cleanest power plants in the nation," Lonnie Carter, president and chief executive of Santee Cooper has said.
The lawsuit claims the proposed power plant would emit over ten million tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide and thousands of tons of toxic and particle pollution every year throughout its projected 50-year lifespan. By authorizing such large amounts of pollution, DHEC's permit violates federal Clean Air Act requirements.
Mercury is a potent toxin that can cause permanent brain and nervous system damage. Because it disrupts brain development, fetuses and small children are most vulnerable to mercury's harmful effects.
Already, the Great Pee Dee River and the nearby Lynches River both have posted limits on fish consumption due to mercury contamination.
According to the U.S. EPA, coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of mercury in the United States. Recent EPA-backed studies show most mercury contamination comes from these local and regional sources.
The DHEC permit contains no limits on heat-trapping carbon dioxide, the most prevalent greenhouse gas. In 2007, the United States Supreme Court decided carbon dioxide clearly was an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Additional federal regulation of carbon emissions is expected in 2010 following this decision, Holman says.
Yet DHEC did not require an analysis of ways to reduce carbon emissions and Santee Cooper has yet to publicly acknowledge the cost to ratepayers for the carbon dioxide the proposed plant would emit.
On February 11, Governor Mark Sanford, a Republican, announced his opposition to the proposed Santee-Cooper power plant, saying that projections related to the need for the plant need to be revisited, along with the potential for harm to the state's environment.
�Everyone involved agrees that building this coal-fired plant is a short-term solution to bridge the gap between now and the time more nuclear capacity comes online," Governor Sanford said.
�It's simply not realistic to suggest that neither coal nor nuclear is acceptable, because like it or not, one or the other must come our way as our state grows over time," said the governor. "To that end, I'd ask the environmental community to indeed embrace nuclear power as an alternative to the coal-fired plant proposal, for the advantages it has in terms of cleaner emissions."
There are seven licensed commercial nuclear reactors in South Carolina. Santee Cooper and South Carolina Electric and Gas have applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licenses to construct and operate two reactors at the V.I. Summer plant by 2015.
Governor Sanford pointed out that forthcoming federal caps on mercury and carbon dioxide have not yet been factored in to the cost of building and operating the plant.
"The proposed plant would have a significant negative impact on air quality and increase mercury pollution. The plant would emit the equivalent of 2.3 million cars in carbon dioxide yearly, and nearly 15 million cars' worth of particulate matter," the governor said in a statement.
Given Santee Cooper's overall decrease in power sold last year and a statewide slowdown in new home construction, the growth projections that showed the need for the plant need to be revisited, he said, adding that unpredictability in the global commodities market may make the coal needed to run the plant more expensive than originally anticipated.
In a growing national trend, said Holman, private utilities are abandoning new coal-fired power plants, citing pollution concerns as well as increasing coal costs and the decreasing cost of natural gas.
Last week, investor-owned utility Entergy announced it was shelving a new coal project in Louisiana because of lower demand, high financing costs, increasing coal costs and falling natural gas prices.
In February, Nevada Power canceled plans for a $5 billion coal fired plant in that state.
Santee Cooper's own studies show that demand could be met using natural gas and increased efficiency, Holman says. Additional studies show that efficiency upgrades and renewable sources in South Carolina make the plant unnecessary and would create thousands of good-paying, permanent local jobs while protecting public health and environment in the state.
Also, Santee Cooper still needs a federal wetlands permit, state water quality certification and several other state environmental permits before it can begin work on the new power plant.
Santee Cooper is the state's largest power producer, supplying electricity to more than 163,000 retail customers in Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry counties, as well as to 29 large industrial facilities, the cities of Bamberg and Georgetown, and the Charleston Air Force Base. Santee Cooper also generates the power distributed by the state's 20 electric cooperatives to more than 700,000 customers in all 46 counties.
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