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Nuke disposal bill polarizes S.C. legislators
by Kirsten Singleton/ Morris News Service
Wednesday, February 28, 2007 12:03 PM EST
COLUMBIA - Rep. Billy Witherspoon, R-Conway, thinks of the Barnwell nuclear site and envisions millions of dollars heading to the county and the state, mostly to educational programs.
“That's a lot of money, and so it's helped a lot of people,” Witherspoon said.
Rep. Bill Herbkersman, R-Bluffton, thinks of the site and envisions a stream of nuclear waste leaking into the Savannah River and wrecking the environment from Barnwell on down to the Atlantic Ocean.
“I'm defending a way of life,” Herbkersman said.
Two men. Two visions. And one big battle about to brew at the Statehouse.
Open since 1971, the Barnwell site stores low-level nuclear waste from South Carolina, New Jersey and Connecticut. But the agreement allowing the site to take waste from other states is set to expire next year.
Earlier this month, however, Witherspoon introduced a bill to extend the agreement for another 15 years, allowing Barnwell to accept 40,000 cubic feet of waste annually through 2023.
The landfill, which places casks of nuclear waste in unlined trenches, stretches across 235 acres.
Extending the three-state agreement would allow the facility to use the remaining 20 acres, said Tim Dangerfield, senior vice president for South Carolina at EnergySolutions, which has owned the site since last year.
“We're not asking to expand the footprint of the facility,” Dangerfield said, adding, “We're asking that the other states be allowed to bring in their wastes until 2023.”
But for Herbkersman, it's a simple equation: More waste means a greater chance of a nuclear accident.
The facility once leaked radioactive tritium onto nearby property, although Dangerfield said the leak was “caught in time” and that the facility itself notified the Department of Health and Environmental Control about the leak.
Herbkersman said he's taking a state and local perspective.
As a state, South Carolina doesn't need to be the “dumping ground” for New Jersey's and Connecticut's nuclear waste, he said.
“Their reluctance to have this stuff in their own state is an indication of how bad it is,” he said.
And as a local representative, he noted that Barnwell and Jasper counties are “downhill, downwind and downstream” from the site.
Witherspoon counters that the site has an excellent environmental history, brings jobs to the region and, each year, provides about $10 million to the state, most of which goes to education and scholarship programs.
Barnwell County also gets $2 million each year to house the waste.
“Why not keep it open?” Witherspoon asked.
Thirty representatives already have signed on to co-sponsor Witherspoon's legislation, including Rep. Lonnie Hosey, D-Barnwell.
Barnwell County's other House member - Rep. Bakari Sellers, D-Denmark - is not a co-sponsor. Nor is Rep. Kit Spires, R-Pelion, the only House member in the Aiken County delegation not to sign on.
Herbkersman said he, too, is amassing his own group of supporters, though he declined to name them until they are officially onboard.
He's already begun the battle, though. On Tuesday, he tried to use parliamentary procedure to put the bill under the control of the Beaufort delegation - which he said would have killed the legislation - but Witherspoon thwarted the attempt.
But Herbkersman said he will continue fighting the bill at every level, from its upcoming subcommittee meeting on, for as long as it takes to defeat the measure.
Witherspoon is chair of the Agriculture, Natural Resources & Environmental Affairs Committee, which is charged with reviewing the bill.
As for Gov. Mark Sanford, his office said the governor has not seen a “compelling reason” to keep the Barnwell site open to out-of-state waste after 2008.
