McMaster wants bulk of $525M settlement to go to SC counties hurt by plutonium storage
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster wants a majority of the Savannah River Site settlement to go toward three counties that have been hurt most by the presence of plutonium stored in the area.
McMaster said at a town hall in Aiken on Friday, as part of an information gathering session for how to spend the money, that most of the $525 million from the settlement should be used in Aiken, Barnwell and Allendale counties.
“We have an opportunity to make some transformational steps and investments,” McMaster said. “Everything we do with this, as with other things we do, must be viewed in the light of the impact it will have for future generations.”
South Carolina has received $600 million from the federal government in a settlement after the failure to remove bomb-grade plutonium from a nuclear weapons complex at the Savannah River Site, as required by federal law. The agreement also says the Department of Energy must remove nearly 10 metric tons of weapons-usable plutonium from SRS during the next 15 years. After $75 million in attorneys fees, South Carolina has $525 million to spend from the settlement.
Ultimately, the General Assembly will have to decide how the money from the settlement will be spent.
The House Ways and Means Committee has a group lawmakers tasked with determining how to spend the Savannah River Site money, as well as federal COVID-19 relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act.
“I want to make sure that ... Aiken County is not the only consideration for those funds, in my opinion,” state Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said earlier this week. “We are going to need to look at the impact of a long-term investment in some of those surrounding counties like Allendale and Bamberg and Barnwell Counties, and particularly our education disparities.”
State Sen. Tom Young, R-Aiken, suggested money can go toward, among other things, infrastructure improvements such as water and sewer work in industrial parks, broadband expansions, and investments in cybersecurity in North Augusta to complement what is being done with a cyber command at Fort Gordon in Augusta, Georgia.
Others in attendance also suggested investments in school facilities and training centers in the three county region.
“We seek to get as much of this money allocated to our three counties to transform the citizens lives that we represent and to make sure that the adverse impacts of the plutonium being stored here and the failure of the federal government to fulfill the MOX project, will not be forgotten and not be lost upon others in the state,” Young said.
This story was originally published August 20, 2021 at 12:01 PM with the headline "McMaster wants bulk of $525M settlement to go to SC counties hurt by plutonium storage."
