WATCHDOG UPDATE: Coal ash on Tobacco Road

A few days after Post and Courier Watchdog reported how Berkeley County crews put coal ash, likely laced with traces of arsenic and other toxic chemicals, on an unpaved road near St. Stephen, residents said the county's graders came out in force to work on the road.

Residents said crews scraped Tobacco Road and sprayed water to keep the dust down. "I know a couple of people who work on the road, and they said they've been told not even to speak about it," said Amanda Wilder, a resident on Tobacco Road, adding that the dust is worse than ever.

Frank Carson, the county's engineer, told Watchdog that Tobacco Road is on a continuous maintenance schedule, and that the recent scraping was a normal part of that regimen. He said the road is on a list to be paved with one-cent sales tax money, but that roads on this list won't be paved until later. Money from the sales tax won't be collected until May, and engineering and design work on the road still needs to be done, he said.

Meanwhile, while the road is smoother, residents said they remain concerned about the health effects of breathing fly ash dust. "I don't see how the guys running the heavy equipment do it," said William Lynch, a resident, referring to the dust kicked up during the grading. Residents shared photos of how vehicles kick up clouds of dust after the road was scraped.

In 2005, Santee Cooper supplied 425 tons of fly ash from a nearby coal plant for what it called a "demonstration" project. The utility hoped that fly ash mixed with a soil stabilizer would create an alternative to asphalt paving and help counties with large numbers of unpaved roads save money. The utility tested the fly ash and found it contained traces of arsenic, selenium and barium.

Santee Cooper said it had all the required permits from state officials. Wilder isn't impressed. "They need to own up to what they did. They were doing an experiment, but I think they're putting people at risk."