May 3, 2023
Toxic Coal Ash in South Carolina: Addressing Coal Plants’ Hazardous Legacy
For decades, utilities disposed of coal ash — the hazardous substance left after burning coal for energy — by dumping it in unlined ponds and landfills. South Carolina has 34 coal ash dumpsites.
After years of litigation and grassroots activism, on Apr. 25, 2024, the EPA issued a new rule that will force power plants to finally clean up their toxic coal ash. The EPA extended federal monitoring and cleanup requirements to hundreds of previously excluded older coal ash landfills and ponds that have been leaking toxic pollution into groundwater.
Note: Coal ash dumpsites referenced as “unregulated” throughout this page now are likely subject to federal regulation under the final rulemaking.
Coal ash contains hazardous pollutants including arsenic, boron, cobalt, chromium, lead, lithium, mercury, molybdenum, radium, selenium, and other heavy metals, which have been linked to cancer, heart and thyroid disease, reproductive failure, and neurological harm. In 2023, the EPA acknowledged that coal ash is even more dangerous than previously thought, with levels of arsenic and radiation that pose cancer risks.
Industry’s own data indicate that across the country 91% of coal plants are currently polluting groundwater above federal health standards with toxic pollutants.
Despite EPA’s 2015 Coal Ash Rule, which created the first-ever safeguards for coal ash disposal, many coal ash dumps remained unregulated due to sweeping exemptions for legacy coal ash ponds and inactive landfills. The exempted coal ash dumps are sited disproportionately in low-income communities and communities of color. The EPA extended clean up requirements to hundreds of old coal ash dumps across the country when it issued new regulations in the spring of 2024.
Coal ash remains one of our nation’s largest toxic industrial waste streams. U.S. coal plants continue to produce approximately 75 million tons every year.
In 2023, the EPA acknowledged widespread noncompliance with existing coal ash regulations and ramped up enforcement after designating coal ash a national enforcement priority.
Action Needed
The magnitude of harm from recklessly dumped toxic coal ash requires decisive action from federal and state regulators.
- Utilities must be required to comply with the law and immediately clean up their pollution.
- EPA and states must act quickly to ensure that utilities leave communities with sites that benefit rather than harm their health, environment, and economic status.
- EPA must take action to prohibit the use of coal ash as construction fill and make polluters clean up areas where ash was used as fill.
19 Regulated Coal Ash Disposal Sites in South Carolina
South Carolina utilities operate 19 federally regulated coal ash ponds and landfills containing nearly 24 million cubic yards of toxic waste at seven coal plants.
At all of the South Carolina plants, industry’s monitoring data indicate that groundwater is contaminated above federal safe standards.
Despite the serious water contamination, no South Carolina plant, to date, has selected a final cleanup plan that will actually remove the hazardous contaminants from the groundwater, as required by federal law.
The coal ash contamination disproportionately impacts disadvantaged and vulnerable communities, as all but one of the coal ash-contaminated sites are located in communities of color or low-income communities.
| Cope | Cross | Dominion | 1 landfill | Historical data indicate exceedances of cobalt and radium[ii] |
| Cross* | Cross | Santee Cooper | 2 unlined ponds, 2 landfills | Beryllium (x4), Boron (x12), Cobalt (x15), Lithium (x2), Radium 226+228 (x3), Sulfate (x4) |
| HB Robinson | Hartsville | Duke Energy | 1 unlined pond | Arsenic (x10), Lithium (x2), Molybdenum (x1), Radium 226+228 (x3), Thallium (x1) |
| WS Lee | Williamston | Duke Energy | 2 unlined ponds | Arsenic (x2), Beryllium (x1), Boron (x1), Cobalt (x15), Lithium (x2), Molybdenum (x4), Radium 226+228 (x1) |
| Wateree | Eastover | Dominion | 1 unlined pond, 1 lined pond, 1 landfill | Arsenic (x113), Boron (x1), Cobalt (x2), Lithium (x2) |
| Williams | Goose Creek | Dominion | 1 lined pond, 1 landfill | Arsenic (x2), Boron (x10), Cobalt (x1), Radium 226+228 (x2) |
| Winyah* | Georgetown | Santee Cooper | 5 unlined ponds, 1 landfill | Arsenic (x62), Boron (x7), Lithium (x10), Mercury (x11), Molybdenum (x6), Radium 226+228 (x1), Sulfate (x2) |
Plants Cross and Winyah operate inactive coal ash ponds at the facility but have not reported the ponds on their CCR Rule Compliance Data and Information website nor has the owner complied with the CCR rule’s requirements that apply to these ponds, including groundwater monitoring, closure, and corrective action. This is also the case at SC Electric & Gas Co’s Urquart Plant in Beech Island, SC.
All data on groundwater contamination from coal ash derived from the utilities’ publicly accessible CCR Compliance Data and Information websites, and exceedances were calculated by Environmental Integrity Project.
For more information on regulated coal ash sites in South Carolina, see Mapping the Coal Ash Contamination.
15 Coal Ash Legacy Ponds and Inactive Landfills in South Carolina
March 2024 Update: The table below underestimates the legacy units that may be regulated by EPA’s upcoming CCR Legacy Pond Rule. Additional legacy units at specific plants may be found in the national map, above.
In addition, South Carolina hosts at least 15 inactive coal ash landfills and legacy ponds that escaped federal regulation. The exact number remains unknown because utilities were not required to report these sites.
At several of the sites in South Carolina, EPA and/or the utility has already determined that coal ash has contaminated groundwater, but there are no federal monitoring or cleanup requirements applicable to the unregulated dump sites.
As we anticipate EPA’s proposed rule on legacy ponds and unregulated landfills in May 2023, a concern remains that the agency will not address coal ash that was dumped off site or used as fill.
| Canadys Steam | Canadys | SC Electric & Gas Co | 3 | 1 | Yes – EPA damage case |
| Cross | Cross | Santee Cooper | 0 | 3 | Yes – Industry data and EPA damage case |
| Grainger | Conway | SC Public Service Auth | 2 | 0 | Yes – EPA damage case |
| Jefferies | Moncks Corner | SC Public Service Auth | 2 | 0 | Unknown – no data |
| McMeekin | Columbia | SC Electric & Gas Co | 0 | 1 | Yes – EPA damage case |
| Savannah River D-Area | Savannah River | DOE | 0 | 1 | Yes – EPA damage case |
| Urquhart | Beech Island | SC Electric & Gas Co | 0 | 1 | Yes – EPA damage case |
| Williams | Goose Creek | Dominion | 0 | 1 | Yes – Industry data |
“Industry data”: Industry monitoring data posted on the plant’s CCR Compliance Data and Information website.
“EPA damage case” denotes a site where US EPA has found documented groundwater contamination from coal ash.
These data were developed by using EPA datasets relied upon in their 2007 and 2014 CCR risk assessments (Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Residuals) and comparing those datasets to the universe of regulated units.
For More Information
Christine Santillana, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice, csantillana@earthjustice.org
Lisa Evans, Senior Counsel, Earthjustice, levans@earthjustice.org.
More on Coal Ash in South Carolina
Coal Ash in States, Territories, Regions
Puerto Rico (En Español)
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