STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 14.16 | APRIL 17, 2015
NEWSTurbulent future for serene Edisto River
By Bill Davis, senior editor
APRIL 17, 2015 | Subtle, serene, and slow-moving since forever, the Edisto River may be in for big, turbulent change.
Earlier this month, a national watchdog listed the 250 miles of South Carolina blackwater river as the fifth most endangered river in the country, up from sixth last year.
The release of that ranking has churned rhetoric of how best to use and protect the Edisto River on its journey from the springs of Edgefield and Saluda counties to where it meets the ocean at Edisto Beach.
The two sides with the most to lose are the conservationists and the state’s small farms, which are represented in the fight by state Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers.
But they seem to have swapped tactics. American Rivers, the watchdog organization, continues to warn that policy is the best way to address the river’s challenges. Meanwhile, Weathers is arguing that science holds the answers.
Statehouse players like state Rep. James Smith (D-Columbia) have entered the fray and churned up the rhetoric, accusing Weathers of “selling out the state’s family-owned farms” in his attempt to woo western industrial farming to set up shop in South Carolina.
Blackwater back-story
At issue is the S.C. Surface Water Withdrawal, Permitting Use and Reporting Act, last ratified in 2010, and how it fails to deal with potential megafarms and the huge amount of water they need to grow crops.
A proposed potato farm along the South Fork of the river could have drawn literally one billion of gallons of water from the Edisto River annually. And because of shortcomings in the law, nothing could be done to stop it. But a compromise was struck between the Michigan-based farming company and locals, greatly reducing the amount of water it would take out of the river that feeds into the ACE Basin.
According to an official at the state Department of Natural Resources, very few water users have to file for permits to draw surface water from rivers in South Carolina. Only new industrial use and municipal drinking water withdrawals have to file permits, as older users have been grandfathered in under the 2010 law, according to DNR.
Farmers — or “agribusiness as conservationists sometimes refer to them” — don’t have to file for permits for irrigation water, even though very little of the water they take for irrigation actually returns to the river.
“Of course, they want no permitting; that’s the easiest for farmers,” said Bill Marshall, a scenic rivers manager for DNR and one of its experts on water usage.
Ironically nuclear plants, which are usually seen with more dread than a pea field, are required to clean, recycle and return most of the water it uses, said Marshall.
Conservationists, like Gerrit Jobsis with American Rivers, argue that unfettered drawdowns would be especially damaging to the Edisto during droughts and to those who depend on it for drinking water, fishing or recreation.
Further driving the importance of this debate is the looming drought crunch in California as its surface waters dwindle and the drought that hit Atlanta and parts of northeast Georgia in recent years that left popular lakes at record low levels.
Civility, please
Weathers, the agriculture commissioner, says he and the conservationists are really on the same side. He has asked both sides to be “civil” with each other while awaiting the results of a DNR study of the Edisto River.
“We have to wait for the facts,” he says.
Weathers, a farmer, said once the study was completed, it will guide lawmakers interested in addressing changes in state law, which he will implement.
But Jobsis, a former DNR official, said the study would not provide any recommendations or guidelines and isn’t quite the panacea Weathers seems to be describing it as.
Jobsis said he also had problems with some of the “science” that Weathers is relying on publicly. Several times in public and in interviews, including one with Statehouse Report, Weathers claimed that agribusiness draws down just 3 percent of the state’s available surface water annually, a level he said is well below the state’s “safe yield” in terms of water usage.
“[Hooey],” says Smith, but in different terms, citing an existing DNR report that quashes Weathers’ 3-percent claim. Smith said Weathers was corrected at a recent public forum. Statehouse Report was unable to get the DNR report cited by Smith.
“I don’t know every hydrologist,” said Weathers, staying the course. “I’m a farmer.”
Deep waters run still
Weathers said his biggest fear is that farmers will be required to file for water permits, as envisioned in a bill by Smith that should be debated next week.
The commissioner said pricey permitting could threaten the viability of small, family-owned farms, especially those sized close to 20 acres. The average size of a farm in South Carolina is just short of 200 acres, he said.
Smith charged that Weathers’ real concern is his ability to tell big industrial growers fighting for irrigation water out West under a different water legal paradigm to “come to South Carolina where you don’t even have to file for a permit.”
Conversely, Smith said that Weathers’ position would do more to imperil the small family farm by threatening its irrigation sources if the state lures thirsty megafarms upriver.
“We’re going to pass this bill,” says Smith. “The only question is, are we going to do it this year, proactively, or in the future after a crisis.”
COMMENTARYThank you, Fritz Hollings
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher
APRIL 17, 2015 | No one in modern time has given as much to South Carolina as Fritz Hollings. In seven decades of public service – starting as a young officer in World War II to becoming governor to being elected seven times to the United States Senate, Hollings has given back in big ways.
Most recently, he made news after he asked for his name to be taken off of a federal judicial annex in Charleston and for it to be named to honor the late U.S. District Judge Waties Waring, the courageous civil rights jurist from Charleston who paved the way for landmark school integration in the United States.
Through the years, Hollings has left a huge mark that is still paying dividends today. He’s the guy who pushed through stable funding for schools in the early 1950s and later started the technical college system, which attracts companies like BMW and Boeing. Prior to retiring in 2005, he led major policy initiatives to protect oceans, thwart hunger and promote health care that are still having impacts today. Without Hollings’ leadership, it would have taken more time for a telecommunications revolution that put smartphones in our pockets and revolutionized the cable TV industry.
There’s no one alive who better represents why public service is critical to America than Fritz Hollings. But beyond his legendary leadership for our nation and state is the quiet, untold story of how he molded careers and shaped lives of the people who worked for him. His steady guidance and daily example of doing the right thing and steering people in the right direction made better people of those who worked for him.
“He tested you hard and pushed you to learn,” one former staffer recalls. “He pushed you to think about things from different angles, ones that you didn’t even know existed. He prepared you for any challenge.”
Another staffer, now a Washington lawyer, says a day doesn’t go by without him thinking about Hollings or using something learned from him: “Never stop learning. Look at a problem from six different directions. Never underestimate the power of a well-timed quip to change the dynamic and drive home your point. And, of course, there is no education in the second kick of a mule.”
An illustration of Hollings’ renowned humor — people still never know exactly how he is going to frame an issue — came during a confirmation hearing for an Federal Aviation Administration official. A staffer from Charleston still remembers what Hollings said 20 years ago in a discussion of Atlanta’s busy airport: “If Sherman had had to go through that place on the way to the sea, we’d have won that damned war!”
Fritz Hollings changed the lives of citizens and his staff. The 93-year-old continues to inspire people, as noted by one South Carolina woman who worked for him: “He taught me about personal responsibility — especially dealing with mistakes. Never throw a colleague under the bus. Claim the mistake, take the heat, be quick to forgive, accept and move on.”
Years ago when it was clear the shipyard and Navy base in Charleston were on a federal list for closure, Hollings’ response was not to keep it quiet and do a political dance around the issue. Instead, he took it head on and told voters what he had learned. Why? Because they deserved to know quickly so they could get as much time as possible to make the case to keep the facility. He took some hits. People didn’t believe him. But it was the right thing to do.
My parents taught me the difference between right and wrong. They made me who I am in so many ways. But with the guidance of Fritz Hollings through the years, I and others who worked for him learned practical ways to interact and serve. We learned there’s always a way to get something done. We learned to inspire by example, fight for principles and never give up. We saw power wielded wisely.
And more than anything, we learned to think of others first. For all of these gifts, we are eternally grateful.
Thank you, senator.
Andy Brack, editor and publisher of Statehouse Report, served as spokesman for Hollings from 1992 to 1996.
SPOTLIGHTSouth Carolina Policy Council
The public spiritedness of our underwriters allows us to bring Statehouse Report to you at no cost. This issue’s underwriter is the South Carolina Policy Council. Since 1986, the Policy Council has brought together civic, community and business leaders from all over our state to discuss innovative policy ideas that advance the principles of limited government and free enterprise. No other think tank in South Carolina can match the Policy Council’s success in assembling the top national and state experts on taxes, education, environmental policy, health care and numerous other issues. That ability to bring new ideas to the forefront, lead the policy debate and create a broad base of support for sensible reform is what makes our organization the leader in turning good ideas into good state policy.- For more information, go to: www.scpolicycouncil.com.
Rhodes: Continued nuclear waste storage isn’t in S.C.’s interest
By Suzanne Rhodes, special to Statehouse Report
APRIL 17, 2015 | Nuclear wastes at Savannah River Site (SRS) have been leaking for decades. The League of Women Voters of South Carolina has been observing the slow progress of managing the legacy weapons wastes for over 30 years. It now appears likely that not only wastes from SRS, but also international wastes, will stay at the Aiken County site for the foreseeable future.
Two reports released late in 2014 indicate legal and political opposition will obstruct current U.S. nuclear waste storage plans. Neither Yucca Mountain nor any other site for geologic high-level waste disposal — not even “interim” storage of commercial spent fuel — is likely to develop, according to the Government Accountability Office. It blames the public’s lack of confidence in U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). GAO is an arm of Congress, which should have been the origin and supporter of nuclear waste management policy. Instead, Congress has consistently undermined progress at Yucca Mountain through inattention, program changes and unreliable funding.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission states that DOE lacks the land rights and water rights necessary to license the site, according to its 5-volume Safety Evaluation Report on Yucca Mountain. A series of Nevada governors and attorneys general — NOT just U.S. Sen. Harry Reid — has opposed Yucca Mountain. Nevada seems to have succeeded in blocking the repository. [See Volume 4 of the report.]
If/when a geologic repository becomes available, the nuclear power industry will have political influence and community support to move commercial spent fuel off to a repository. Weapons wastes were included in the 1980s legislation only because three highly-regarded governors and their delegations were concerned about weapons wastes abandoned in their states. Decades ago, they united to initiate the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, which is now basically obsolete. Unfortunately, we lack such leadership today.
S.C. Sen. Tom Young of Aiken established last summer that international wastes have been received at SRS, have not been treated and there are no plans for treatment. The League’s strongest ally has been Tom Clements of SRS Watch, who has been concerned about nuclear waste issues since the Allied General Nuclear Services plant was proposed ‘next door’ to SRS back in the 1970s. One of his many successes has been uncovering mysterious, long-planned international shipments of wastes to SRS from very capable countries that potentially could become regional leaders in international nuclear waste management.
Fortunately, all of the puzzling ‘transuranic’ wastes at SRS have been successfully packaged for shipment to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. There was a tragic explosion at WIPP in February 2014 and it appears unlikely to reopen. The League has repeatedly praised the SRS technical staff for tackling the old legacy packages, which were poorly documented and might have been ignored at another weapons facility. The remaining wastes will remain at SRS, packaged for shipping, unless the state of New Mexico allows reopening of WIPP.
Fortunately, SRS technical staff has done an outstanding job of making wastes as safe as practicable, thus far. However, staff engineering design goals have been for temporary storage at SRS in forms ultimately suitable for the Yucca Mountain repository site or WIPP. Up to 50 more years of congressional appropriations and successful cleanup will be required to continue to treat the wastes now at SRS. Delays have been the result of lack of appropriations from Congress. Recent budget cuts have slowed SRS cleanup for more than a decade.
In addition to legal issues compromised if proposed German3 and other international spent fuel is sent to SRS, international waste will require the use of aging facilities, long-term oversight, management, and financial responsibilities. Waste imports continue to be contrary to South Carolina interests.
Suzanne Rhodes of Columbia is coordinator or nuclear waste policy with the League of Women Voters of South Carolina.
FEEDBACKPolice need broader worldview
To the editor:
Andy [Brack] speaks with moderation, expertise and experience. [Commentary: What was done right and what still needs to be done.]
He mentions better recruits for police positions. Charleston’s Police Chief Reuben Greenberg rightly placed a high value on a standard of college educated police officers.
Police officers need to have more than a neighborhood-I-grew-up-in conceptual world. They need, as the placards say, to recognize the rights of people — I am a human, a man — and all that implies. What does this mean to a person schooled only in a local neighborhood world?
– David Bossman, Charleston, S.C.
Send us a letter. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less. Please include your name and contact information. Send your letters to: feedback@statehousereport.com
PHOTOAbandoned store, Aiken County
This old store is diagonally across the Old Ninety Six Indian Trail from Jackson Hole in the western part of South Carolina. New Holland Crossroads in rural Aiken County, S.C., looks pretty much like a ghost town these days, said photographer Linda W. Brown of Kingstree, S.C.
SCORECARDJobs, roads, violence, abortion
Thumbs up
New jobs. Hats off to Berkeley County for the great possibility of scoring up to 4,000 new jobs through a new manufacturing plant for which permits have been filed. More.
Roads bill. Thumbs up to the S.C. House for passing a $400 million a year roads bill that envisions a mix of sales taxes and raising sales tax caps. While it faces an uphill battle because of a veto threat by Gov. Nikki Haley, it’s good to get this to the Senate, which has a bolder approach. Fingers crossed for better infrastructure soon.
Medicaid expansion. Good going to a bipartisan group of state senators who are proposing a new plan that would allow 194,000 of South Carolina’s working poor to use federal and state money to buy private health care. Memo to state businesses — support the measure to improve lives and the quality of S.C. health. More.
Inglis. Congratulations to former GOP Congressman Bob Inglis of Greenville who will receive the JFK Profile in Courage Award for his aggressive stance on addressing climate change since the tea party worked to vote him out of office in 2010. More.
In the middle
Domestic violence. It’s good the House passed a bill to toughen domestic violence laws. But there are two problems — the measure doesn’t go far enough in restricting those charged from guns and by insisting on a House bill, there not be enough time for the Senate to do what it needs to do. More fingers crossed for hard work to get a tough bill passed.
Thumbs down
Abortion. Thumbs down for a Senate committee that voted to take away a woman’s choices for her body by voting to ban abortions for women who are 20 weeks pregnant, with some exceptions. More.
Coble. We’re saddened to hear that former Columbia “Mayor Bob” Coble had to undergo quadruple bypass surgery. We are pulling for a full and speedy recovery. More.
NUMBER44
That’s South Carolina rank out of 50 states for return on investment for taxes paid to the state and local government, according to a new study by WalletHub. In other words, South Carolina has the nation’s seventh worst state rank in delivering quality services at a reasonable cost. The overall rank included indicators for infrastructure (10th of 50), education (29), health (43), safety (50), economy (46) and pollution (12). The bottom-of-the-country safety ranking included data from the crime rate, vehicle fatalities, sex offenders and youth incarceration rate. Read more.
Christopher Gadsden
Patriot and merchant Christopher Gadsden was born in Charleston on February 16, 1724, the son of Elizabeth and Thomas Gadsden, a collector of customs. Gadsden received a classical education in England before completing a four-year apprenticeship to a prominent Philadelphia factor. Between 1745 and 1747 he served as purser aboard the British man-of-war Aldborough. With money from his seafaring service and a large inheritance from his parents, who had both died by 1741, Gadsden launched one of the most successful mercantile careers in the province. By 1774 he owned four stores, several merchant vessels, two rice plantations (worked by more than ninety slaves), a residential district called Gadsdenboro in Charleston, and one of the largest wharfs in North America.
Possessing financial independence and a civic spirit, Gadsden pursued public office. In 1757 he began his nearly three decades of service in the Commons House of Assembly. He first revealed himself as a vocal defender of American rights during the Cherokee War by attacking the British colonel James Grant for taking command of local troops above provincial Colonel Thomas Middleton. Gadsden continued to defy British authority as a member of the assembly by opposing the governor and Royal Council in their attempt to infringe on the legislature’s right to raise troops, control money bills, and determine the election of its own members. Governor Thomas Boone marked Gadsden a troublemaker in 1762 and used a violation of a minor electoral practice to deny him his seat in the Commons House. The ensuing controversy between the governor and Gadsden swelled the merchant’s reputation as a defender of colonial rights and helped transform him into a zealous American patriot.
Gadsden continued to champion American home rule and to oppose Parliamentary supremacy at the Stamp Act Congress in New York in 1765. During the next decade, Gadsden joined with Charleston mechanics (Sons of Liberty) to lead the local “patriot party” against every perceived infringement of America’s rights by Parliament. Gadsden’s influence and dedication earned him election to the First Continental Congress, where his extremism manifested itself in proposals for Congress to reject all Parliamentary legislation passed since 1763, to attack the British fleet in American waters, and to instruct each colony to prepare for war. Gadsden returned to South Carolina in February 1776 to serve as colonel of the First Regiment and as a member of the Provincial Congress, where he promoted independence and coauthored the South Carolina constitution of 1776. That summer he helped repulse the British navy’s attack on Charleston, conduct that earned him a position as brigadier general in the Continental Army. Two years later Gadsden helped secure the disestablishment of the Anglican Church and popular election of senators in the state’s 1778 constitution. But the conservative faction dominating the assembly managed to dampen the firebrand’s influence in the new government by electing Gadsden to the impotent position of vice president (as the office of lieutenant governor was then known).
While Gadsden’s zealous and suspicious personality was ideal for organizing American resistance, it was counterproductive in the post-1776 political structure. In 1777 he impulsively resigned his commission as brigadier general over a petty dispute with General Robert Howe. The following year Gadsden violently upset the masses by favoring leniency toward local Tories. And while serving as lieutenant governor in 1780, Gadsden’s irrational temperament cost the United States more than two thousand Continental troops when Charleston fell to the British. Following a ten-month imprisonment in St. Augustine, Gadsden returned to South Carolina to rebuild his many business interests, which suffered considerably during the war. He returned to public service briefly in 1788 to vote for ratification of the United States Constitution and again in 1790 to serve in the state’s constitutional convention.
Gadsden married three times. On July 28, 1746, he married Jane Godfrey. The couple had two children. He married Mary Hasell on December 29, 1755. His second marriage produced four children. Following Mary’s death in 1768, Gadsden married Ann Wragg on April 14, 1776. They had no children. Gadsden died on August 28, 1805, from head injuries suffered in a fall near his home in Charleston. He was buried in St. Philip’s Churchyard.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina!