Blowin’ in the wind

Coal dust fuels controversy over bid to expand shipping terminal

Even in the parching heat of South Carolina's summer sun, the ground at one local industrial site stays saturated.

Ankle-deep puddles and muddy gullies dot the landscape at Kinder Morgan Energy Partners' terminal on the Cooper River in Charleston. Workers and computerized spraying systems constantly are wetting the ground, trying to keep particles of coal from escaping into the wind and dusting the surrounding area.

The Texas-based company recently spent $1.5 million to install and upgrade equipment that's designed to help water the site. Still, tiny pieces of coal and cement have managed to drift over to the Cooper River Marina and onto Paul Hensarling's 30-foot sailboat.

"The water you wash off the docks literally runs black," he said.

For more than a year, marina tenants and nearby residents have been reacting to the company's request to expand, at times speaking out against the proposal and other times listening to Kinder Morgan officials explain their operation at monthly meetings, as part of a newly created advisory panel. Environmental regulators still are drafting a permit for the expansion, which likely will be issued later this summer.

Advisory panel members have learned that the dust around the facility doesn't exceed federal standards for particles in the air. And the forum has made some progress: What was once sheer anger on the part of nearby residents has mellowed into a placated politeness.

But despite the corporate openness, some boaters and residents are still skeptical. And some remain nervous about supporting the Kinder Morgan expansion, which would more than double the amount of coal allowed to pass through the terminal en route to power plants throughout the Southeast.

Gayle Frampton, a soft-spoken but feisty Park Circle resident who has attended the meetings, said the company has come a long way. She noted that she has watched loaded coal cars leave the facility without generating dust clouds. But she still isn't convinced Kinder Morgan should be allowed to expand.

"The jury's still out on that," she said. "I think that it is very good what they have done, but I would hate to see them get too big that it creates more of a problem."

Long process

Three years ago, Kinder Morgan announced plans to expand its Charleston operations by adding an extra docking terminal and a second coal pile that would span about 5 acres. The additional capacity would create about 45 jobs.

The expansion would enable the company to play a bigger role in the energy industry, as power utilities across the Southeast are importing increasing amounts of coal from South America to keep up with growing electricity demand.

The company applied for permits through the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's Bureau of Air Quality. During the public comment period for the application, residents and boaters said they feared if dust and train traffic were problems at current levels of operation, an expansion would worsen the situation.

Kinder Morgan responded by making improvements: it installed a mist machine that suppresses puffs of coal dust that occur when the raw, black chunks are dumped onto the conveyer belt. And they set up a computerized system that turns on water sprayers around the coal pile when the wind picks up.

Workers also began spraying the coal after it's loaded onto rail cars, forming a crust that could prevent dust from shaking off into the neighborhoods as the trains pass through. The rail cars also are loaded on a recently extended track that has cut what was a 25-minute train crossing time down to less than 10 minutes, said Arthur Rudolph, the company's regional general manager.

"We're spending quite a bit of money here to improve our terminal," he said.

Those improvements weren't required by state regulators, but were undertaken as a way of earning community support, which could help smooth the permitting process.

Still, boaters at the marina say the coal dust often settles on their property as ships are unloaded, a process that usually takes less than four days. Dustings are more frequent when the wind blows upstream, as it usually does during the summer.

YouTube factor

Skepticism runs deep among boaters who rent slips at the county-run marina. Over the years, the facility has lost a handful of customers who got tired of washing the film off their boats. The frustration was fueled in part by a video that one boater took, and later posted on YouTube.com, of the crane bucket scooping up river water and dumping it on a ship to rinse it off.

Rudolph publicly apologized for the incident, promising it wouldn't happen again. And he said he's confident that the improvements are working to cut down on coal dust.

"It depends who you talk to," he said. "We have heard that the improvements are working. We are confident that the improvements ... have been effective."

The company's openness also has helped residents understand how Kinder Morgan operates, he added. Company executives have been meeting monthly with a panel of residents and community activists, giving them a chance to explore topics such as emergency planning and air-quality regulations.

While panel members say they're grateful for the information, the process has frustrated some, who have realized the limited control Kinder Morgan has over the site. For example, the company can't cover the rail cars because it does not own them. It also does not own the ships that dock at its terminals, meaning it cannot require that idling vessels reduce their air emissions by switching to cleaner-burning diesel fuel.

Kinder Morgan doesn't even own the coal it handles, making workers cautious about overwatering or damaging its customers' shipments.

"The meetings have been informative, but they aren't going to reach any conclusion that people are going to be happy with because you can't address the entire problem," said advisory board member and West Ashley resident Bob O'Brien. "DHEC doesn't have the money or the facilities to address the entire problem."

DHEC officials have conducted tests to see if the air at the marina is safe to breathe. The testing showed that the dust level doesn't violate federal health standards, but other tests did confirm that the biggest component of the dust at the marina is coal.

State officials still are making changes to the facility's proposed permit, tacking on extra conditions meant to help control emissions. They likely will give final approval to the expansion in late summer.

Susan Yates, a DHEC air quality manager who is working on the permit, said the air permits sought by big companies such as Kinder Morgan are permits that allow them to pollute. The state's job is to determine how much is allowable, she explained.

"Most businesses that have air emissions, they can't operate with out emitting something," she said.

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postandcourier.com.