By Sammy Fretwell
The State
Consultants say South Carolina could save nearly $2 million a year by managing a closed lakeside hazardous waste dump more efficiently.
But among their recommendations is a plan to cut back on some of the pollution monitoring that was intended to detect leaks from the aging landfill.
A study presented to a skeptical panel of state senators Wednesday outlined changes that could reduce South Carolina’s annual cost for the site it inherited when landfill operator Safety Kleen filed for bankruptcy 15 years ago.
Because money left in the bankruptcy settlement is running out, the state faces an estimated $4 million annual tab for the next 90 years to manage the dump so the site won’t leak industrial poisons into Lake Marion. That totals $360 million in the next nine decades. Senators are looking for ways to pay the tab and protect the lake.
Overall, the Haley & Aldrich consulting report said the landfill is being well run, has not leaked and doesn’t threaten Lake Marion today.
“We did not find any current risk to human health or the environment,’’ David Hagen, a senior vice-president of the consulting firm, told a landfill study committee.
The state, however, could cut annual costs with some changes, the study said. The best way to do that is to reduce the amount of toxic water building up in the landfill. Changing treatment and management practices for the water, known as leachate, is worth consideration, the study said. At the same time, the study recommends reducing monitoring in some spots, particularly in aquifers that run deep below ground.
But the Haley & Aldrich report, a telephone-book sized document commissioned by state regulators, sparked plenty of questions Wednesday.
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