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Old 01-04-2017, 07:10 AM
 
127 posts, read 137,644 times
Reputation: 61

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Coal tar cleanup abandoned for Congaree River | The State

Quote:
At the request of state regulators, SCE&G has abandoned plans to excavate and remove polluted coal tar from the Congaree River in a decision that could save the power company $11 million, records show.

The utility, which is responsible for addressing the contamination, would leave tons of coal tar on the bottom of the Congaree and cover some of the river bed with fabric and stones, according to federal and state correspondence reviewed by The State newspaper.

That’s a significant departure from SCE&G’s plan two years ago to deal with tar that drained from a company-owned site. At the time, SCE&G had developed a plan to temporarily dam part of the river so it could excavate the gooey material and haul it away. The project was expected to cost $18.5 million.

But in correspondence with the utility, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said diverting the river with a dam or sandbags isn’t practical, so the excavation can’t be done.
Quote:
The coal waste, which DHEC calls “tar-like material,’’ contains an array of chemicals, including carcinogens such as benzene and a class of chemicals known as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons. Many sediment and soil samples collected from the tar-coated river bed have shown “high levels of contamination’’ above recommended federal levels, according to DHEC’s website.
Frustrating
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Old 01-04-2017, 09:43 AM
 
733 posts, read 550,286 times
Reputation: 162
This was going to allow Columbia/Richland to shelve the riverfront park for years, if not indefinitely. There are plenty of other road and sidewalk improvements ahead of the park, but this at least opens to possibility of using penny tax dollars to do something great along that stretch of the river.
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Old 01-04-2017, 05:52 PM
 
Location: Columbia, SC
6,830 posts, read 16,479,514 times
Reputation: 1928
Quote:
Originally Posted by carolinagarnet View Post
This was going to allow Columbia/Richland to shelve the riverfront park for years, if not indefinitely. There are plenty of other road and sidewalk improvements ahead of the park, but this at least opens to possibility of using penny tax dollars to do something great along that stretch of the river.
That is a positive, but I still worry about future environmental concerns.
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Old 01-06-2017, 03:42 PM
 
8,136 posts, read 13,181,315 times
Reputation: 2529
Quote:
Originally Posted by waccamatt View Post
That is a positive, but I still worry about future environmental concerns.


Is there a threat to people by them leaving this stuff in place? I guess kayakers and people fishing downstream need to be concerned.
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Old 01-07-2017, 07:55 AM
 
Location: Lexington, SC
1,065 posts, read 2,250,936 times
Reputation: 577
On sites like these often there are two choices, remediation or encapsulation. In a dynamic environment like a river you risk a lot of downstream contamination if the remediation process has a problem. In many cases if the waste has been stagnant for years it is better to take steps to shore up the elements that have kept it from spreading and to monitor the site in the future and that is what it sounds like they are doing.

SCE&G's liability for this issue is not going away so don't worry about that. And the waste has been there for over 100 years so it is unlikely to suddenly become an issue.

And don't think I'm an SCE&G fanboy, if I had my way the whole organization would be torn down and privatized. There is not a more self serving, government protected organization in the state.
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Old 01-07-2017, 12:06 PM
 
743 posts, read 737,357 times
Reputation: 187
I think this is a good move overall. Too often people tend to think the answer is either do nothing or do the most possible. Damming the river would have caused problems and impacted wildlife. It also could have possibly led to contamination downstream if flooding broke the dam. Ideally SCE&G would have never dumped this in the first place. This is a solution that will protect the river, and allow riverfront park to be finished sooner than never.
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Old 01-08-2017, 07:06 PM
 
733 posts, read 550,286 times
Reputation: 162
Unless I'm mistaken, I believe the waterfront park has been removed from the Richland County Penny Tax website:

Project Information | Pennies Impacting People
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