"Plan for Ash Landfill Stirs up Opposition"

"A South Carolina utility company that drew fire for allegedly tainting a local water supply with coal ash residue, a by-product of burning coal that is known to cause serious illness, recently purchased 987 acres in Colleton County to build a new landfill for the waste.

The acquisition comes as the federal Environmental Protection Agency weighs a proposal to reclassify coal ash as a hazardous waste material, which would make its disposal more strictly regulated.

An SCE&G spokesman said the company needs to build the landfill now to prepare for when current storage facilities near the Edisto River, where the alleged contamination occurred, fill up. He said the project's timing 'is not tied to regulations.' ...

But critics, including Nancy Cave of the Coastal Conservation League, charge that the project is an attempt to evade the proposed federal regulations that could require sending the waste "

Renee Dudley reports for the Charleston Post and Courier October 11, 2010.