Press Mention The State June 6, 2012
SACE Referenced
Coal pollution suit filed against Santee Cooper
In this mention
Three environmental groups, including the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, filed suit against state-owned Santee Cooper over toxic arsenic discharges from the utility's Grainger coal-fired power plant in Conway. The lawsuit challenges the company's plan to leave 650,000 tons of coal ash in lagoons beside the Waccamaw River, arguing it poses contamination risks to groundwater and waterways. The suit was filed just before the Legislature banned citizens' pollution lawsuits, making it one of the last cases allowed under South Carolina's pollution control law.