DHEC criticized in pollution case; criminal probe sought

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(article originally appeared in TheState newspaper on August 6, 2011)

A former Richland County prosecutor wants the state attorney general to open a criminal probe of groundwater pollution in an Upstate community that for years was left in the dark about toxic contamination nearby.

Columbia lawyer Dick Harpootlian, hired to represent 70 Spartanburg County families, hand-delivered a letter Friday to Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office, requesting a State Grand Jury investigation of the former Hoechst Celanese plant near Cowpens.

Harpootlian said both Hoechst and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control have plenty of questions to answer about the pollution and why residents were not warned about tainted groundwater flowing toward their homes.

In his letter to Wilson, Harpootlian said it is clear that “individuals with Hoechst Celanese illegally and improperly disposed of several very dangerous chemicals.” It asks that the company’s conduct be investigated. Harpootlian’s letter also said he was “shocked to find that SCDHEC has been aware of this conduct for almost a decade” but apparently never referred the matter to the attorney general for review.

Mark Plowden, a spokesman for Wilson, said the Attorney General’s Office is looking at the request but offered no further comment. If a State Grand Jury investigation results, it would mark the first such probe of a pollution case since the Legislature broadened the grand jury’s powers six years ago to include environmental crimes.

DHEC spokesmen Thom Berry and Adam Myrick said their agency had no comment on Harpootlian’s request for an investigation.

DHEC has known since 2001 that a polluted groundwater plume was drifting toward the Cannon’s Campground community from the site Celanese once operated, but no one was warned, Harpootlian said. The community relied for years on well water, and some residents still drink from wells today. Chloroform, which can cause cancer, is a major pollutant in the plume.

In an interview, Harpootlian, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said the investigation should look at both the Hoechst operation and at DHEC’s oversight of the facility.

If no criminal charges result, the grand jury can still issue a report outlining what mistakes were made, he said. He and Columbia attorney Bert Louthian are preparing a lawsuit against Celanese and will share information with the attorney general, his letter to Wilson said.

Attempts to reach Celanese spokesman William Jacobsen were not successful Friday, but he told the Spartanburg Herald Journal on Thursday that his company has been aggressive in seeking to clean up the site.

“Celanese and its employees are committed to protecting the environment, preserving the health and safety of its employees and communities, assuring the safe operations of processes and complying with all applicable laws, rules and regulations in each location where it does business,” Jacobsen said.

Now known as Celanase, the company today is an international producer of specialty chemical products. It no longer runs the plant that still operates in Spartanburg County. Company products serve a variety of uses, including in paints, textiles, paper and food packaging. The company is headquartered in Dallas and employs some 7,200 people.

DHEC officials noted that groundwater contamination like that in Spartanburg is not unusual. South Carolina has some 4,500 sites with contaminated groundwater, and Myrick said “there are numerous sites like this around the country.”

Even so, the agency has sometimes come under attack for its handling of groundwater pollution issues. The criticisms include:

• DHEC’s failure to warn the public about the extent of contamination leaking from a nuclear waste dump in Barnwell County

• DHEC’s handling of a groundwater pollution issue at an industrial site owned by AVX in Myrtle Beach

In addition, DHEC came under fire in Richland County for failing to ensure, for 20 years, that lead was cleansed from a poor community’s drinking water system.

While DHEC officials declined comment on the investigation request, Berry and Myrick emphasized that contamination from the old Hoechst Celanese site has not polluted anyone’s drinking water in Spartanburg County.

The agency also has completed a study that did not find a high rate of cancer in the community, Myrick said. Myrick emphasized that the agency is dealing with a company that first opened on the site in the 1960s, before the state began overseeing industrial discharges.

Harpootlian’s request Friday for an investigation came a day after a tension-filled community meeting in which he questioned DHEC’s efforts at the Hoechst site. Former company employees have described dumping on the property, he said at the meeting attended by an estimated 200 people in Spartanburg County.

During the meeting, a DHEC official took the unusual step of apologizing to hundreds of residents for failing to tell them about the contamination.

“‘We’re sorry’ is not the response you want from an agency that you are paying for with your tax dollars to make sure the chemical company next door doesn’t poison the water and the land,” said Harpootlian, who prosecuted pollution cases while serving as Richland County’s solicitor 20 years ago. He also has handled special statewide investigations for the Attorney General’s Office.

Lisa Nielsen, who grew up near the old Hoechst plant, said DHEC should do a better job of monitoring and cleaning up pollution.

“We could create jobs in this state simply by cleaning up the messes we have made,” she said.