S.C. bill aims to hold off TVA coal ash

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Less than a week after the Tennessee Valley Authority said that it was looking at out-of-state sites to move millions of tons of coal ash, a South Carolina senator filed a bill that would charge the federal utility hundreds of millions of dollars to move it to his district.

The authority announced last week that it was considering six landfills in the South in which to deposit 3.5 million cubic yards of the toxin-laden byproduct from the old Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis. Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity.

One site considered is in Bishopville, S.C., The Associated Press reported last weekend. After Sen. Thomas McElveen read the story, he scrambled to write a bill that would make it too expensive to move the ash to his district.

“There’s been a history of folks coming into rural counties like this and dumping some of the worst stuff in the world,” said McElveen, a Democrat.

McElveen’s bill would charge $30 a ton to anyone moving coal ash to any landfill in South Carolina outside of the state’s 12 most populous counties.

The TVA would have to pay about $140 million to move the ash under the proposal, which if it isn’t enough to knock South Carolina off the list, should be enough to protect nearby residents and the environment, McElveen said.

“Eventually the landfill closes down and the economic investment and the jobs go away. We get stuck with what’s left,” McElveen said. “And coal ash is some of the worst stuff you can find.”

The bill passed a Senate subcommittee less than two hours after it was proposed Thursday.

Other sites under consideration are in Shelby County, Tenn.; Robinsonville, Miss.; Uniontown, Ala.; and Mauk, Ga.