Environmental groups skeptical of latest Kingsburg plant plans

Opponents of Santee Cooper’s proposed Pee Dee Energy Campus said the announcements made Tuesday by Santee Cooper are little more than diversions to make people think the facility will be good for the region.

Nancy Cave, director of the north coast office of the Coastal Conservation League, said a number of issues the power company broached in the press conference must be addressed.

The first is the Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) analysis being submitted to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Cave said she thinks Santee Cooper is acting like it has done something extra by submitting the report, when in fact it is only doing what is required of them.

“This is in response to the federal appeals court ruling from earlier this year that coal plants could no longer be negated from submitting an MACT analysis,” she said. “All coal plants, not just Santee Cooper, have to do a MACT analysis.”

Cave said her organization, as well as other environmental groups in the area, will be reviewing the data in the report before commenting on the information it contains.

The updated generation plan Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter discussed at the press conference also leaves something to be desired in terms of efficiency, Cave said.

“We’ve said all along that if they implemented more efficiency programs it would be the fastest way to reduce energy demands,” she said. “If they committed to 1-percent efficiency programs each year, we wouldn’t need to buy additional power or to build this plant.”

Cave also said she is interested to learn more about the newest member of Santee Cooper’s team, Dr. Gail Charnley, a toxicology specialist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and what effect she thinks the plant will have on local bodies of water.

“We are interested to see what this person says, but what Santee Cooper can’t deny is that every coastal river is under a fish advisory,” she said.

Blan Holman, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said that with the so-called “Mercury Triangle” including part of the Pee Dee, there is no room for a coal plant which will produce even more mercury.

“We don’t need any more mercury in the Pee Dee’s Mercury Triangle, and we don’t need any more mercury in the fish that South Carolinians like to catch and eat,” he said.

Holman said he hopes Santee Cooper will take the hint and not place its “dirty” coal plant in the Kingsburg area as planned.

“Already, Santee Cooper is the single biggest mercury emitter in South Carolina, because it has so many coal plants,” he said. “Other utilities have sworn off new dirty coal plants in South Carolina, and now it is time for Santee Cooper to join them.”