South Carolina tapped for new pipeline, tank farm

Groundwork for a proposed underground pipeline is beginning in South Carolina, one that would carry fuel to Florida from a tank farm near Belton, where company officials expect to construct a new facility to handle the expanded load.

Construction on the pipeline is expected to begin next spring, said officials with Kinder Morgan, the Texas-based company that is proposing the $1 billion project.

The company recently met with Anderson County officials in an information session and earlier this month was granted permission to begin surveying S.C. Department of Transportation property near Interstate 520 in Aiken County.

If it moves forward, the Palmetto Pipeline Project would run underground through 100 miles and five counties in South Carolina – Aiken, Edgefield, McCormick and Abbeville, before ending in Anderson.

There, the Kinder Morgan subsidiary Palmetto Products Pipe Line plans to construct a new 900,000-barrel tank farm, and it is evaluating the footprint needed to construct the new facility, said Melissa Ruiz, a Kinder Morgan spokeswoman.

"Kinder Morgan is in discussions with landowners, and the vast majority of the time we are able to reach mutually beneficial agreements with impacted landowners and communities without any need for eminent domain," she wrote in an email.

Conversations with the company are in early phases, said Rusty Burns, Anderson County administrator, who attended a meeting with Kinder Morgan in the last month or two.

"I think they are still doing right-of-way work and are doing their due diligence," Burns said. "They told us an overview of the project and gave us some preliminary maps."

Burns said he suspects much of any new pipeline would use existing right of way easements in the county. Documents provided by Kinder Morgan to the county indicate 92 landowners would be affected over 11.1 miles in Anderson.

Altogether, the pipeline would run 360 miles across the three states and is tentatively slated to come on line in the summer of 2017, carrying up to 167,000 barrels of gasoline, diesel or ethanol each day.

It would link into an existing line in Jacksonville, Florida, and travel up the Georgia coast before heading northwest, generally parallel to the state line before crossing into South Carolina near North Augusta.

Officials in that upper Savannah River community have scheduled a public meeting for May 21 after residents there began getting letters notifying them that the project may come through their property.

Georgia already has seen a series of public meetings, and the project has met with fierce opposition in areas including Savannah, where riverkeepers and environmentalists fear a leak could be devastating to one of the five river watersheds the line would cross.

In the Belton area, the Cheddar community has long been beset by environmental problems, including a landfill and aging fuel facilities, said M. Cindy Wilson, the Anderson County councilwoman who represents the area.

Residents there also are raising concerns about the project, she said, and she hopes to facilitate a public meeting with Kinder Morgan.

"They need to understand what came before they consider their project," Wilson said. "We do not want to see again a roughshod treatment of the citizens of this beleaguered community."

Ruiz, the Kinder Morgan spokesman, said her company has met with several agencies regarding the South Carolina portion of the project, including representatives from the governor's office and the five counties, as well as the state Department of Health & Environmental Control and the Department of Natural Resources. They also have met with the U.S. Forest Service regarding the Sumter National Forest and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Kinder Morgan believes the project will move forward as concerns are addressed, she said.

"Based on the significant need for the project, which is evidenced by long-term shipper commitments, we do believe the project will move forward after addressing stakeholder concerns," she said.

The pipeline would create an estimated 28 permanent full-time positions in South Carolina. In 2014, Kinder Morgan and its subsidiaries had 212 positions on the payroll, according to the company.

Belton already has tanker trucks moving fuel through town, and in December, a truck overturned, spilling nearly 8,200 gallons of gasoline, which in turn led to the closure of several city blocks and the evacuation of several homes as the smell of the fuel permeated the air.

Alan Simms, who serves as both the town's fire chief and city administrator, said he would welcome the new line.

"Anytime you can get fuel product off the road and get it underground, it's going to be safer," he said, but he also acknowledged the area has seen pipeline problems.

In December, about two weeks before the tanker truck capsized, a leak was reported in a rural area near Lewis Drive and West Calhoun Road after a passing motorist noticed dying vegetation. That line is also owned by a Kinder Morgan subsidiary, Plantation Pipe Line Company,

First estimated to be an 8,000-gallon gasoline spill, DHEC spokesman Jim Beasley said this week that more than 175,000 gallons of product has been recovered and more than 2,800 tons of soil has been removed and treated offsite.

The area now has about 71 groundwater monitoring wells, 20 recovery sumps, 15 recovery wells, and two recovery trenches to address the pollution.

Of those, 26 monitoring wells and sumps are still measuring product, Beasley said in an email.

The agency is conducting ambient air and soil vapor monitoring daily as a protective measure, he added.