FLATS signs standards agreement

The Florence Area Transportation Study (FLATS) Policy Committee has signed an agreement so that if the area doesn’t meet standards for the pollutant ground-level ozone, it won’t be alone in correcting the problem.

Committee member Morris Anderson also asked Tuesday whether a proposed Santee Cooper coal-fired plant in Kingsburg would affect the area’s ground-level ozone readings.

FLATS is one of many metropolitan planning organizations statewide. It approves projects using state and federal transportation funds for roads and transit in this area.

The memorandum, signed Tuesday, states that if FLATS or any other metropolitan planning organization in the state doesn’t meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s stricter standard for ground-level ozone, all such organizations statewide will help the area try to meet the requirements within a year.

The FLATS area is “bumping up against” the standard, Florence County Planning Services Officer Scott Park said.

He said he’s unsure yet what effect the coal-fired plant could have.

Santee Cooper spokeswoman Mollie Gore said the plant’s technology would remove more than 90 percent of nitrogen oxide, which forms ground-level ozone by reacting with volatile organic compounds in sunlight.

Not meeting the EPA standard could hurt business recruitment because industries locating or expanding in a nonattainment area have to show that they’ll take steps to improve air quality. Such an area also could ultimately lose its federal highway funding.

S.C. Department of Transportation project manager Michelle James also gave the FLATS committee an update on road projects Thursday. She said the department has extended the widening of South Ebenezer Road to the county’s disposal site. That additional road work will be funded through part of the money the county borrowed when it recently refinanced debt, county administrator Richard Starks said.

The Pineneedles Road widening project also will require a Kangaroo gasoline station in the area to relocate its pumps, she said in response to an audience member’s question.

In addition, workers also are laying pipes as they begin a safety project to realign part of North Ebenezer Road, James said. That work should be done by the fall.

The committee also voted for a group to receive and grade proposals from consultants to study the area’s transportation system and recommend improvements.

The services would be in addition to SCDOT planning, which focuses on ways to improve existing roads, Florence County Planning Director Bill Hoge said.

“One of the things an outside consultant will look at is, ‘Do we need a new road here?’” Hoge said.

The state will reimburse FLATS for as much as 80 percent of the cost of the consultant’s services, he said.

The FLATS committee also endorsed a Florence city application for $118,000 in funding to transform the northeast corner of South Irby and Cedar streets into an area with trees and walkways, similar to the Evans Street breezeway.

The committee discussed ways to increase public awareness of FLATS, although it tabled the creation of a public advisory group of as many as 18 residents and business leaders in the FLATS area.