South Carolina needs to stop the addiction...to coal!

South Carolina needs to stop the addiction…to coal.

With twelve coal-fired power plants already in South Carolina adding another major source of pollution is a bad idea. The health of everyone and everything residing in this state is in jeopardy if this construction is allowed!

The permitting process has already started. South Carolina’s regulatory agency, South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), already granted an air quality permit, in spite of the many objecting parties. Now a water quality permit is being reviewed and up for decision soon. The Army Corps of Engineers is conducting an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) to document the impact on the wetlands in and surrounding the 4.2 square mile tract of land that is the proposed site; the expected release of this information is spring ’09. Santee-Cooper, the energy company proposing the coal-fired power plant, also needs a permit for on site solid waste dumps.

The regulations on coal-fired power plants are not enough! One plant meeting the most stringent regulations is one plant too many! The life cycle of coal is dirty through and through. There are not enough regulations that will every clean it up so we should consider burning it! Extraction of coal is an environmentally devastating process. In Appalachia mountaintop removal is used to get to the coal (visit www.ilovemountains.org to see what this process looks like), all of the energy providers in South Carolina rank in the top twenty for receiving coal from mountaintop removal. Coal processing creates waste containing many heavy metals and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). The recent environmental catastrophe in Tennessee and health issues documented in the Appalachia region due to the coal mining process are just part of the coal problem. After the coal is blown from the ground it makes the long journey, by train, to South Carolina. Here it is burned and releases tons of VOCs into the atmosphere. The waste left from the burning is dumped in pits into the ground. Often, these dumps contaminate groundwater and leach into the soil. Places in South Carolina that are near coal ash dumps have tested at ninety times the federal limit for arsenic. Mercury contamination is a problem in South Carolina waterways already. The proposed plant is located on the Pee Dee River, the hotspot for mercury contamination. A coal-fired power plant will only increase the problem. These are few in the long list of problems that coal-fired power plants create.

Be a part of the solution! Look to conservation and efficiency to meet South Carolina’s energy needs. A three percent increase in conservation will meet needs and make this plant unnecessary. If we still need more energy we need to look to renewables, such as off-shore wind, to meet our needs!

Be a part of this movement. Protect our state from this atrocity. Visit www.SCsaysNO.com to sign the petition and be a part of this fight for the health and future of South Carolina!