COLUMBIA — Despite the failure of his 2002 threats to "lie down in the road" and block federal shipments of plutonium bound for the Savannah River Site, former S.C. Gov. Jim Hodges did succeed in closing a Barnwell nuclear waste dump to the nation - a feat that had eluded a number of the Democrat's predecessors.
A new proposal from the company that operates the state-owned Barnwell low-level radioactive dump under lease would reverse the work of the Hodges administration that formed the Atlantic Compact.
That agreement limited the states from which the dump would accept waste and spread the costs of operating the facility among the three member states: New Jersey, Connecticut and South Carolina. Before that, the Barnwell facility was one of just three commercial nuclear dumps in the nation and the only one east of the Mississippi River.
"I don't know how many times we have to fight this battle," Hodges said in a Wednesday interview with the Aiken Standard. "In my legislative career, which spanned from 1986 to 1999 and four years as governor, we dealt with this issue three or four times. We finally reached a long-term solution."
EnergySolutions, which operates the landfill under the name Chem-Nuclear, recently launched a statewide public relations effort complete with television and online commercials. The effort's website, truthaboutbarnwell.com, features facts about the waste site along with testimonials of support from Barnwell-area leaders, economic development officials and residents.
After the launch of that campaign, S.C. Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, whose district includes portions of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Colleton, Hampton and Orangeburg counties, began discussing proposed legislation to change the way the dump operates.
According to media reports, Hutto's suggestion was to open the dump to higher-level waste from around the nation so Chem-Nuclear could charge higher rates and thereby help to pay for ongoing environmental management at the aging site. Opened in 1969, the 235-acre site holds 28 million cubic feet of material and has a history of leaching tritium into the groundwater and nearby tributaries of the Savannah River.
No bill has been filed, and Hutto has not responded to numerous requests for an interview after a withering barrage of editorials from newspapers around the state that panned his suggestion.
In 1999, Hutto, then a freshman Senator, was a member of the Nuclear Waste Task Force assembled by Hodges that recommended the Atlantic Compact and the closing of the dump to shipments from outside states.
"I'm disappointed that what I thought was good-faith bargaining, apparently, is being revisited," Hodges said. "Some memories may be dimming, but I remember it all pretty well."
Hodges said he found the pro-environment reasoning offered by some for the expansion of the waste stream 15 years later comical.
"Using a proenvironmental argument for taking higher-level waste to pay for environmental degradation that's taken place there over time - that's pretty unique and creative. I'm going to give them an A for effort," he said.
Hodges said he understands the Barnwell community is very supportive of Chem-Nuclear, largely because of the jobs and funds the facility has brought to the area over the years. The 2000 Atlantic Compact legislation recognized that, he said, and provided for a "soft landing" by allowing activity at the facility to wind down over the course of a decade.
"We need to show our resolve as a state and remain committed to a well-thought-out plan that all the players agreed to," he said. "The Barnwell community agreed on it, the State of South Carolina agreed on it ... (Chem-Nuclear) agreed on it."
Republican Gov. Nikki Haley echoed Hodges' sentiment in a Thursday news conference on the topic, saying "we don't sell our soul for jobs and money." Improving the state's environment and quality of life is the far more important goal, she said.
Hodges said he remains proud of his efforts to defend the environment in South Carolina, pointing out that he was right about Barnwell and right when he said plutonium that arrived in the state over his objections would be here long-term.
"Somebody predicted that was going to happen in 2002 ... I believe that was me," he said.
At the time, Hodges went so far as to send state troopers to the Savannah River Site, a federal nuclear weapons installation, to stop any vehicles carrying some 6.5 tons of plutonium from the Department of Energy's closed Rocky Flats site in Colorado. He never did lie down in front of any trucks after a federal court order required that he allow the shipments into the state.
Federal officials said then that the material would be converted at SRS into fuel for nuclear reactors. But Hodges had warned that the conversion program might never be funded, and that the plutonium might be stored permanently in South Carolina. While the mixed oxide, or MOX, fuel facility designed to reprocess the cache is now under construction more than a decade later, the project has been through several Congressional attempts to cut or eliminate funding for it, and the plutonium remains in storage at the site.
"The Savannah River Site has been a blessing for the region in terms of the good work that is provided for the people there," Hodges said. "But, at the same time, we've borne our share, in terms of the environment, on dealing with issues there."
Tim O'Briant is the editor and director of audience for the Aiken Standard.