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Toxic Ash: A License to Pollute

Across South Carolina, leaking coal ash dumps are creating new pollution headaches, a new Watchdog investigation shows. What are state officials doing about it? A four-part series.:

Coal's time bomb

PART 1: Ponds, landfills hold power plant ash laced with poisons

23 comments

Every year, South Carolina's power plants burn enough coal to fill 10 large football stadiums, leaving behind a stadium-size pile of toxic ash. ... read more...

DHEC's pollution pass

PART 2: Agency designates areas where power plant coal toxins can mix with clean water

Monday, Oct. 27, 2008

Say you were pulled over for doing 75 mph in a 55-mph zone, and you asked: "Officer, may I have permission to keep speeding? As far as I'm concerned, I wasn't really doing anyone any harm, and by the way, is it OK if you don't charge me a fine?" What if the officer's response was, "Sure, no problem, keep speeding, but don't go any faster than 75 mph, and if you do, how about letting me know, OK?"

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Utility's plan stirs coal-ash debate

PART 3: Some say new Santee Cooper plant on Great Pee Dee River will bring toxic pollution despite safeguards

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008

On the banks of the Great Pee Dee River, Santee Cooper wants to build a giant power plant that would consume 410 tons of coal every hour and generate enough electricity for 600,000 homes. Burning all that coal also will generate huge volumes of potentially harmful ash, and Santee Cooper plans to store it in a landfill and holding pond on a bluff above the river.

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Ash landfill causes concern

Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008

Near Moncks Corner, in the quiet Whitesville community, SCE&G operates an ash landfill for its Williams generating station. For years, wells drilled to monitor groundwater around the landfill didn't reveal any pollution problems — until 2004 when engineers put them in places where contamination was more likely to occur.

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Useful things rise from ashes

PART 4: Coal-plant waste is recycled into building materials

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2008

GEORGETOWN — At Santee Cooper's Winyah generating station, powerful generators make enough electricity to light 577,000 homes. In the process, the plant creates vast amounts of ash, and for years, hundreds of thousands of tons ended up in nearby retention ponds. No more.

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Follow-up stories:

Most recent stories at the top.

Groups file suit against DHEC

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Conservation groups filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that South Carolina government regulators illegally gave Santee Cooper a green light to build a new coal-fired power plant on the Great Pee Dee River that would pump 31 times more toxic mercury into the air than the legal limit.

Read More 10 comment(s) / read/add comments

DHEC board to hold hearing on coal-fired plant

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

Amid a growing national debate over coal-fired power plants, the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's board agreed Thursday to review a staff decision to give Santee Cooper an air pollution permit for its proposed generator on the Great Pee Dee River.

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Analysis: Utility toxins go into ponds

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

South Carolina coal plants dumped more than 1.1 million pounds of arsenic, mercury, lead and other highly toxic chemicals into ash ponds similar to the one in Tennessee that failed in December, a Post and Courier Watchdog analysis shows.

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Coalition to battle coal plant

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

COLUMBIA — A coalition of conservation groups, unified to fight Santee Cooper's proposed coal-fired power plant in Florence County, wants to know why the state-owned power company is investing in the polluting fuel to generate energy when the rest of the country is moving in another direction.

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Film looks at fight against coal plants

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009

The acclaimed documentary film "Fighting Goliath" will air during the monthly meeting of the local Sierra Club at 7 p.m. today at Baruch Auditorium, 284 Calhoun St. in Charleston.

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Well water near coal ash spill may be unsafe; tests under way

Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008

KINGSTON, Tenn. — Some water samples near a massive spill of coal ash in eastern Tennessee are showing high levels of arsenic, and state and federal officials on Monday cautioned residents who use private wells or springs to stop drinking the water.

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Coal ash spill causes outcry

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008

Millions of gallons of ash sludge poured through a broken dike at a coal plant Monday in Tennessee, fueling outcries from environmentalists, including critics of Santee Cooper's proposed Pee Dee plant, who say the breach exposes the dangers of coal ash.

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Young activists fired up in fight against coal

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

JOHNSONVILLE — Outside the high school here Tuesday night, as people gathered for a public hearing, three young women wrestled with a big black inflatable coal plant that looked similar to a jump castle — except for the words "CLEAN UP DIRTY COAL PLANTS NOW" on the side.

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