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Dear Editor:

 I have just read the letter in your paper of July 18 by Craig Kennedy seeking to convince the people of Williamsburg County that the huge limestone mine he is seeking to have permitted in the Earles Community will do no environmental harm.  I have been an environmental lawyer for 40 years and have seem many applications for all kinds of projects as large or larger than this one.  I am a 1970 graduate of Williamsburg High School with deep family roots in our community.

I am sad to say that it is not only completely untrue that the Earles mine will be harmless, but I believe Mr. Kennedy and his client, Clarke Wooten, know it.  Mr. Kennedy asks us to rely on his long history in mine permitting.  We should carefully consider his history – 40 years, most of it as a mine permitting regulator for the State.  His background gives us every reason not to trust him.  During Mr. Kennedy’s long years with the State, he helped preside over regulation of mines so pathetically weak, that limestone mines close to Earles –in Suttons, Jamestown, Cross, Horry County and in Georgetown County caused untold environmental and property damages without any intervention from his agency.  Only when the companies were sued by residents of those communities twenty years ago, did the pumping of  huge quantities of ground water which caused streams and swamps to dry up, wells to dry up, and sinkholes to destroy structures and swallow cemeteries stop.  Mr. Kennedy was certainly cashing his state pay checks during that time, but what did he do to prevent those environmental harms?  Nothing.  Let me add that there is no technical debate about the effects of the pumping of groundwater at those mines Mr. Kennedy saw no reason to stop.  The records of DHEC and DNR are full of reports confirming that fact and Mr. Kennedy knows it.  The adverse effects of the pumping extended anywhere from one half mile to a mile and a half.

Mr. Kennedy claims that monitoring will somehow prevent these harms at Earles.  He does not explain how this could be true.  The assertion is ridiculous.  The foremost expert on the geologic formation where the mine is proposed has referred to Mr. Kennedy’s proposal as flawed and characterizes the proposed mine as a huge experiment.  Of course, the lab rats in that experiment will be the people who live in the community.  Mr. Kennedy does not mention why his friend Mr. Wooten wants to pump out the groundwater – it is, according to mining experts, so he can save $1.25 per ton on an average sales price of $16 per ton – a buck and a quarter compared to the huge risk he wants to force this community to bear.  The limestone can be mined without pumping out the groundwater and inflicting huge risks on the community.  Just look at the mines at Cross and Jamestown.  All of the supposed financial benefits Mr. Kennedy claims the county will realize from the mine would still flow from a mine operated with consideration for its neighbors – one that doesn’t cause sinkholes, dried up wells and dried up wetlands.

Mr. Kennedy also avoids mentioning one of the greatest threats from the mine he advocates –the loss of hundreds of acres of wetlands.  The proposed permit will allow his client to pump out groundwater down to 63 feet below the surface.  (This, of course, is 8 feet deeper than DHEC told the community in November would be the limit imposed on pumping).  No experts I have spoken to, engineers, environmental consultants, biologists and botanists, believe such drastic removal of groundwater will not completely drain the hundreds of acres of wetlands adjacent to the excavations.  If those swamps are drained, they will cease being productive habitat.  For forty years protection of swamps like these has been a primary objective of environmental programs.  Moreover, up to 7.5 million of gallons of water per day is slated to be pumped from the mine into Murray Swamp.   Contrary to what Mr. Kennedy says, all experience with similar projects shows it will contain higher pH, suspended solids and chemical additives from dissolved limestone.  This will probably destroy the marine life in Murray and Johnson Swamps and may do significant harm to Black River according to an expert marine biologist who helped to stop a similar project in North Carolina.   It may cause the Atlantic Sturgeon not to spawn in Black River, one its most important spawning areas.

Mr. Kennedy glosses over these very real threats by explaining that he and his client hired “outside” experts.  They sure did.  They went to South Georgia and hired someone to prepare the environmental parts of their application.  Instead of one of the half dozen competent and honest consultants in this part of South Carolina, Mr. Kennedy hired one who is being sued for causing his client, Grady County, Georgia to lose $3.5 million.  As he admitted in his deposition, he deliberately and dishonestly violated the Federal Clean Water Act by constructing a project he designed and got permitted completely different than what the Army Corps approved.  He caused the county to be subjected to a federal enforcement action.  This man, Kent Campbell, was forced to close his business, but has continued to work as an employee of another company.  That is reason enough not to believe him.  But there is more – shocking misrepresentations in the RDA application.  He left out the Atlantic Sturgeon from the list of endangered species known to be located close to the project as well as the critical habitat of that fish, the entire Black River.  No competent and honest consultant would do that.  He claims the mine excavation will not impact 95 acres of wetlands on the mine property, or another hundred acres immediately outside the property.  This claim is utterly false.  He cannot know this is true and, in fact, such a bizarre suggestion runs counter to all experience with such dewatering near wetlands.  So, ask yourself why you would trust anything this man says?  And ask yourself why Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Wooten would hire someone with a track record of environmental violations instead of someone honest and competent.  The answer is painfully clear.

Williamsburg County is a wonderful place.  I know the people of the county feel the same way along with many others whose roots are there.  We need to fight this threat.  All of the public entities with the power to stop the pumping of this groundwater should be told and loudly and by all of us to stop it – that includes DHEC and County Council.  Make no mistake, this mine is an enemy and it is at the doorstep of the place we love.  It is as sure an enemy as the British troops who came to burn Kingstree in 1781.  The people of Williamsburg then, Black and White, rose up and met them at the Lower Bridge.  They stopped them.  We need to hear the same call now and be true to the legacy of those brave soldiers of the Revolution who faced down the army of the greatest power in the world.  The safety and environmental integrity of this special place is worth more than $1.25/ton savings for a North Carolina businessman who cares nothing for us or our community.

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