The South Carolina House Agriculture Committee recently rejected a plan to keep the Barnwell low-level nuclear waste site open to all 50 states and will instead permit dumping only from South Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey after 2008. The vast majority of material collected at this site is solid, low-level radioactive material such as laboratory and hospital gowns, gloves, goggles, and cleaning rags. These are the byproducts of vital medical treatments, scientific research, and even electrical and clean energy production.
It’s easy to understand public opposition to any kind of dumping in our beautiful state, and it’s easy to understand the political impulse that calls for its total ban. Yet, effective leadership often requires educating the public on the larger implications of public policy and nudging public opinion toward the greater good.
While I’m merely an accountant -- not a scientist -- I believe, nevertheless, that too many well-intentioned voices are creating resistance against the very science and the research and development efforts that offer hope and solutions to our most vexing problems. Those scientific efforts, if allowed, can also provide a cleaner, healthier environment, greater economic opportunity, and longer, better lives for us all.
Chem-Nuclear, which operates the Barnwell waste site, is one of our state’s truly outstanding corporate citizens. The company has an admirable record of safety and responsibility. Shipments of waste received at its state-of-the-art facility have produced millions of dollars in fees for the state, the community, and the company. In addition to providing good jobs, the company purchases more than $10 million annually in goods and services in SC. It also pays approximately $600,000 annually in taxes to Barnwell County, and it makes major contributions to public education and to many local civic, recreational, and environmental causes.
Reducing the amount of material received at this site from over 40,000 cubic feet of waste to 8,000 per year will require the termination of approximately half of the 63 employees currently working at the site. In phasing out one of the last low-level nuclear waste sites of its kind in the nation, could we also unintentionally create incentives to move offshore the thousands and thousands of our nation’s medical, scientific, and research and development jobs that produce the waste.
Consider the following. The same God who commanded that man subdue the Earth and have dominion over it, also made us resourceful. In that manner, one remarkably resourceful company has figured out how to convert garbage into clean energy. Another is now converting seawater and polluted water into pure drinking water.
Startech Environmental Corporation is using plasma technology to vaporize solid waste for less than it costs to dump it in landfills. This system provides its own electrical power and any excess electricity can be sold to a local power grid. The system will allow cities to actually make money from garbage, while eliminating waste and providing a cheaper source of power. St. Lucie County, Florida is preparing to erect a $425 million plasma gasification system near a local landfill. It will devour all 2,000 tons of the county’s daily trash, clean up the local landfill, provide electricity to the local power grid, and pay for itself in 20 years. This is a great example of American ingenuity.
Another resourceful American company, LightStream Technologies, uses clean and safe ultra-violet light technologies to convert polluted water into pure drinking water. This technology is being used not only in our country, but also in parts of the world where over two million people are dying annually from polluted water and many more are being sickened by it. This is another great example of American ingenuity.
Let’s realize that the crude oil on which the industrialized world now depends became valuable only because resourceful, inventive people found extraordinary ways to use the messy stuff as it seeped from the ground. As we work today to ensure a better, cleaner environment, let’s remember that it is America’s ingenious free market system that is solving ancient problems, curing diseases, cleaning the environment and providing opportunities for us all.
The day might not be too far off when we’re able to convert the solid waste material at Barnwell into an incredibly valuable resource. That would be yet another great example of American ingenuity.
It’s easy to understand public opposition to any kind of dumping in our beautiful state, and it’s easy to understand the political impulse that calls for its total ban. Yet, effective leadership often requires educating the public on the larger implications of public policy and nudging public opinion toward the greater good.
While I’m merely an accountant -- not a scientist -- I believe, nevertheless, that too many well-intentioned voices are creating resistance against the very science and the research and development efforts that offer hope and solutions to our most vexing problems. Those scientific efforts, if allowed, can also provide a cleaner, healthier environment, greater economic opportunity, and longer, better lives for us all.
Chem-Nuclear, which operates the Barnwell waste site, is one of our state’s truly outstanding corporate citizens. The company has an admirable record of safety and responsibility. Shipments of waste received at its state-of-the-art facility have produced millions of dollars in fees for the state, the community, and the company. In addition to providing good jobs, the company purchases more than $10 million annually in goods and services in SC. It also pays approximately $600,000 annually in taxes to Barnwell County, and it makes major contributions to public education and to many local civic, recreational, and environmental causes.
Reducing the amount of material received at this site from over 40,000 cubic feet of waste to 8,000 per year will require the termination of approximately half of the 63 employees currently working at the site. In phasing out one of the last low-level nuclear waste sites of its kind in the nation, could we also unintentionally create incentives to move offshore the thousands and thousands of our nation’s medical, scientific, and research and development jobs that produce the waste.
Consider the following. The same God who commanded that man subdue the Earth and have dominion over it, also made us resourceful. In that manner, one remarkably resourceful company has figured out how to convert garbage into clean energy. Another is now converting seawater and polluted water into pure drinking water.
Startech Environmental Corporation is using plasma technology to vaporize solid waste for less than it costs to dump it in landfills. This system provides its own electrical power and any excess electricity can be sold to a local power grid. The system will allow cities to actually make money from garbage, while eliminating waste and providing a cheaper source of power. St. Lucie County, Florida is preparing to erect a $425 million plasma gasification system near a local landfill. It will devour all 2,000 tons of the county’s daily trash, clean up the local landfill, provide electricity to the local power grid, and pay for itself in 20 years. This is a great example of American ingenuity.
Another resourceful American company, LightStream Technologies, uses clean and safe ultra-violet light technologies to convert polluted water into pure drinking water. This technology is being used not only in our country, but also in parts of the world where over two million people are dying annually from polluted water and many more are being sickened by it. This is another great example of American ingenuity.
Let’s realize that the crude oil on which the industrialized world now depends became valuable only because resourceful, inventive people found extraordinary ways to use the messy stuff as it seeped from the ground. As we work today to ensure a better, cleaner environment, let’s remember that it is America’s ingenious free market system that is solving ancient problems, curing diseases, cleaning the environment and providing opportunities for us all.
The day might not be too far off when we’re able to convert the solid waste material at Barnwell into an incredibly valuable resource. That would be yet another great example of American ingenuity.
