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Two More Newspaper Articles About Barnwell
Message dated 98-07-09 11:51:44 EDT, forwarded from a CNS LLC representative:
<< Sale, shutdown might be next for waste site
Barnwell?s future suddenly clouded
By ANDREW MEADOWS, Staff Writer
The future of the Barnwell low-level nuclear-waste facility is shrouded in
a cloud of uncertainty.
Chem-Nuclear, which operates Barnwell, is seriously considering closing the
site down because of financial difficulties, according to recent documents
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
At the same time, Waste Management, Chem-Nuclear?s parent company, is in
the middle of a merger with USA Waste. The merged company will sell
Chem-Nuclear with its Barnwell operation, some securities analysts predict.
Amid the uncertainty, the Barnwell facility has generated significantly
less tax money for education than state officials promised in 1995, when a
debate raged on whether to extend the landfill?s life. Ultimately,
legislators, convinced Barnwell would be a boon for education, kept the
site open.
Some members of the education community aren?t surprised Barnwell?s revenue
reality hasn?t met those high hopes.
?Nobody really trusted that this would become a significant source of
revenue,? said Chris Robinson, president of the S.C. School Board
Association and a member of the board of School District 5 of Lexington and
Richland Counties. ?It seems to have panned out the way we expected it.?
Over the past three years, Barnwell has contributed an average of $67
million a year to fund scholarships and school construction, according to
Chem-Nuclear. The total is far below the $140 million a year forecast by
Chem-Nuclear backers, including Gov. David Beasley, in 1995.
While company officials won?t say how the financial problems or the
impending merger are going to affect Chem-Nuclear, there are two leading
scenarios: sale or closure.
James Kelleher, an analyst with Argus Research, said that John Drury, who
will be chief executive of the new, merged company, is known for
jettisoning underperforming divisions.
Chem-Nuclear fits that profile, the analyst said. ?It?s just the kind of
business that I could see Drury getting rid of.?
Lew Nevins, a spokesman for USA Waste, the Houston-based company buying
Waste Management, wouldn?t comment on whether Chem-Nuclear was up for sale.
However, he said profitability would play a role in whether the merged
company keeps any division.
Nevins said the new company wanted to focus on its core businesses. And, at
USA Waste, those operations do not include handling radioactive materials.
?We are evaluating all of the businesses we acquire from Waste Management,?
Nevins said.
Closing the Barnwell landfill also is a distinct possibility.
Chem-Nuclear says its revenues have dropped because of the high taxes the
Legislature placed on Barnwell in 1995 to fund education. The company says
the taxes are forcing customers, mainly utilities, to find ways of reducing
low-level waste.
In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Waste Management
acknowledged it?s considering closing Barnwell.
? . . . (R)educed disposal volume and the requirement that Chem-Nuclear
fund such tax payments have caused Chem-Nuclear to review its alternatives
with respect to the Barnwell facility,? the company said. ?If Chem-Nuclear
determines to close the Barnwell site, the company?s earnings for one or
more fiscal quarters or years could be adversely affected.?
Through fees charged its customers, Chem-Nuclear has built an $85 million
escrow account designed to fund future closing and monitoring costs. The
company said it also maintains a $100 million environmental liability
policy.
The Legislature could always restructure the taxes placed on Chem-Nuclear
to allow the company to increase profitability, Rep. Ronald Townsend,
R-Anderson, who leads the House?s education committee, said Wednesday. That
would let the company continue funding education projects.
But Townsend said he would oppose lowering the taxes on Barnwell. ?To me,
it?s not an option, but I?m just one of 170 (lawmakers).?
Barnwell contributes only a small amount to the state?s billion-dollar
educational needs, Robert Scarborough, executive director of the S.C.
Association of School Administrators, said Wednesday.
But if closed, its revenues would be missed, he added. ?You don?t want to
turn your back on a source of funding.?
THE NEXT ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE:
Landfill still open despite low revenue
Chem-Nuclear blames state tax for bad business
Web posted Jul. 09 at 12:37 AM
By Margaret N. O'Shea, South Carolina Bureau
Chem-Nuclear has no intention of closing the low-level nuclear landfill it
operates in Barnwell County despite a sharp decline in business since South
Carolina imposed a hefty tax on what's buried there.
The company probably will ask the state to reconsider the tax, which is
generating less than half of what lawmakers expected for college
scholarships and school construction when they imposed it, said David
Ebenhack, the company's vice president for community relations and public
affairs.
Chem-Nuclear blames the tax -- $235 a cubic foot -- for much of the
downturn in its business. For the second straight year, the tax revenues
are falling short of the $24 million the landfill is expected to put into a
state scholarship program, Mr. Ebenhack said. Last year the shortfall was
$8.5 million, and this year it is closer to $10 million.
The company has to make up the difference and does it with a surcharge on
utilities that bring their nuclear waste to Barnwell.
As a result, it's not clear what hospitals, chemical labs, nuclear power
plants and other longtime customers of the landfill are doing with their
swabs and gloves, filters, sludge and old reactor parts -- a few of the
kinds of low-level nuclear waste that used to come to the Chem-Nuclear site
by the truckload. What is clear, Mr. Ebenhack said, is that the waste the
landfill receives has dwindled.
Earlier this week, he told a newspaper reporter that ``there is economic
concern here.''
But published reports that Chem-Nuclear is threatening to shut down the
facility if the state tax stays in place are ``simply not true,'' he said.
``We look forward to continuing to operate as long as landfill capacity
exists and there is a need for the safe disposal of the nuclear waste that
society generates,'' Mr. Ebenhack said.
Of 135 acres on the 235-acre site that are usable as landfill, 35 have not
been utilized, and they could last another two decades, he said.
``We are in business and we expect to stay in business,'' he said. ``We are
not threatening to close.''
Chem-Nuclear is continuing to study alternatives for boosting revenues,
including a proposal for selling future space in the landfill to generate
an education trust fund now.
The state Legislature tied education funding to Chem-Nuclear's continued
operations in 1995 when there was intense pressure to get South Carolina
out of the nuclear waste business. The landfill in Barnwell County then was
one of only two such facilities in the nation.
Lawmakers agreed to keep it open and continue accepting nuclear waste from
other states except North Carolina, which had not created a nuclear
landfill within its own borders. A plan to do that in the western corner of
Wake County, near Raleigh, N.C., has not materialized.
``The Legislature reasoned with the law of supply and demand, whatever the
traffic will bear, that there was very little choice about what to do with
nuclear waste, and we could collect whatever tax we imposed,'' said state
Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater.
Now a waste facility in Utah has started accepting nuclear waste and its
tax is $15 a ton. New techniques for storage and disposal also have changed
the game, Mr. Moore said.
``It is irresponsible and wrong to say that Chem-Nuclear has reneged on its
pledge to education in South Carolina,'' he said. ``There are intricate
dynamics and intricate politics involved.''
The Clearwater senator said he would support a fresh look at the
nuclear-waste tax.
State Rep. Roland Smith, R-Langley, said the Legislature should give
serious consideration to whether the tax, because it is so high, has had
the opposite effect from what lawmakers intended.
Mr. Smith, who serves on the state House Ways and Means Committee, said he
would support a reconsideration of the tax.
Democratic state Sen. Nikki G. Setzler, whose district cuts into Aiken
County, said it would be important, if the tax is reconsidered, not to
abandon the commitments to education it includes.
Chem-Nuclear's concern is that expectations are too high, Mr. Ebenhack
said. When anticipated revenues were figured, North Carolina's waste was
not removed from the equation, although South Carolina was determined not
to accept it anymore. Nor did anyone expect Utah to change the playing
field.
Chem-Nuclear has not asked to be freed from its obligation to pay $24
million into scholarships, Mr. Ebenhack said.
But company officials believe a lower tax would lead to increased volume
and equalize or increase revenues.
Under the present system, the landfill is generating about $140 million a
year for scholarships and school construction. The projection was $300
million a year.
While Chem-Nuclear has fallen short of the anticipated revenues, it has
given more than $135 million to school districts throughout the state and
funded more than $50 million in scholarships.
>>
From: Mark Lewis@WMI on 07/09/98 10:46 AM
Published Thursday, July 9, 1998, in The State
Sale, shutdown might be next for waste site
Barnwell?s future suddenly clouded
By ANDREW MEADOWS, Staff Writer
The future of the Barnwell low-level nuclear-waste facility is shrouded in
a cloud of uncertainty.
Chem-Nuclear, which operates Barnwell, is seriously considering closing the
site down because of financial difficulties, according to recent documents
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
At the same time, Waste Management, Chem-Nuclear?s parent company, is in
the middle of a merger with USA Waste. The merged company will sell
Chem-Nuclear with its Barnwell operation, some securities analysts predict.
Amid the uncertainty, the Barnwell facility has generated significantly
less tax money for education than state officials promised in 1995, when a
debate raged on whether to extend the landfill?s life. Ultimately,
legislators, convinced Barnwell would be a boon for education, kept the
site open.
Some members of the education community aren?t surprised Barnwell?s revenue
reality hasn?t met those high hopes.
?Nobody really trusted that this would become a significant source of
revenue,? said Chris Robinson, president of the S.C. School Board
Association and a member of the board of School District 5 of Lexington and
Richland Counties. ?It seems to have panned out the way we expected it.?
Over the past three years, Barnwell has contributed an average of $67
million a year to fund scholarships and school construction, according to
Chem-Nuclear. The total is far below the $140 million a year forecast by
Chem-Nuclear backers, including Gov. David Beasley, in 1995.
While company officials won?t say how the financial problems or the
impending merger are going to affect Chem-Nuclear, there are two leading
scenarios: sale or closure.
James Kelleher, an analyst with Argus Research, said that John Drury, who
will be chief executive of the new, merged company, is known for
jettisoning underperforming divisions.
Chem-Nuclear fits that profile, the analyst said. ?It?s just the kind of
business that I could see Drury getting rid of.?
Lew Nevins, a spokesman for USA Waste, the Houston-based company buying
Waste Management, wouldn?t comment on whether Chem-Nuclear was up for sale.
However, he said profitability would play a role in whether the merged
company keeps any division.
Nevins said the new company wanted to focus on its core businesses. And, at
USA Waste, those operations do not include handling radioactive materials.
?We are evaluating all of the businesses we acquire from Waste Management,?
Nevins said.
Closing the Barnwell landfill also is a distinct possibility.
Chem-Nuclear says its revenues have dropped because of the high taxes the
Legislature placed on Barnwell in 1995 to fund education. The company says
the taxes are forcing customers, mainly utilities, to find ways of reducing
low-level waste.
In a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Waste Management
acknowledged it?s considering closing Barnwell.
? . . . (R)educed disposal volume and the requirement that Chem-Nuclear
fund such tax payments have caused Chem-Nuclear to review its alternatives
with respect to the Barnwell facility,? the company said. ?If Chem-Nuclear
determines to close the Barnwell site, the company?s earnings for one or
more fiscal quarters or years could be adversely affected.?
Through fees charged its customers, Chem-Nuclear has built an $85 million
escrow account designed to fund future closing and monitoring costs. The
company said it also maintains a $100 million environmental liability
policy.
The Legislature could always restructure the taxes placed on Chem-Nuclear
to allow the company to increase profitability, Rep. Ronald Townsend,
R-Anderson, who leads the House?s education committee, said Wednesday. That
would let the company continue funding education projects.
But Townsend said he would oppose lowering the taxes on Barnwell. ?To me,
it?s not an option, but I?m just one of 170 (lawmakers).?
Barnwell contributes only a small amount to the state?s billion-dollar
educational needs, Robert Scarborough, executive director of the S.C.
Association of School Administrators, said Wednesday.
But if closed, its revenues would be missed, he added. ?You don?t want to
turn your back on a source of funding.?
THE NEXT ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE AUGUSTA CHRONICLE:
Landfill still open despite low revenue
Chem-Nuclear blames state tax for bad business
Web posted Jul. 09 at 12:37 AM
By Margaret N. O'Shea, South Carolina Bureau
Chem-Nuclear has no intention of closing the low-level nuclear landfill it
operates in Barnwell County despite a sharp decline in business since South
Carolina imposed a hefty tax on what's buried there.
The company probably will ask the state to reconsider the tax, which is
generating less than half of what lawmakers expected for college
scholarships and school construction when they imposed it, said David
Ebenhack, the company's vice president for community relations and public
affairs.
Chem-Nuclear blames the tax -- $235 a cubic foot -- for much of the
downturn in its business. For the second straight year, the tax revenues
are falling short of the $24 million the landfill is expected to put into a
state scholarship program, Mr. Ebenhack said. Last year the shortfall was
$8.5 million, and this year it is closer to $10 million.
The company has to make up the difference and does it with a surcharge on
utilities that bring their nuclear waste to Barnwell.
As a result, it's not clear what hospitals, chemical labs, nuclear power
plants and other longtime customers of the landfill are doing with their
swabs and gloves, filters, sludge and old reactor parts -- a few of the
kinds of low-level nuclear waste that used to come to the Chem-Nuclear site
by the truckload. What is clear, Mr. Ebenhack said, is that the waste the
landfill receives has dwindled.
Earlier this week, he told a newspaper reporter that ``there is economic
concern here.''
But published reports that Chem-Nuclear is threatening to shut down the
facility if the state tax stays in place are ``simply not true,'' he said.
``We look forward to continuing to operate as long as landfill capacity
exists and there is a need for the safe disposal of the nuclear waste that
society generates,'' Mr. Ebenhack said.
Of 135 acres on the 235-acre site that are usable as landfill, 35 have not
been utilized, and they could last another two decades, he said.
``We are in business and we expect to stay in business,'' he said. ``We are
not threatening to close.''
Chem-Nuclear is continuing to study alternatives for boosting revenues,
including a proposal for selling future space in the landfill to generate
an education trust fund now.
The state Legislature tied education funding to Chem-Nuclear's continued
operations in 1995 when there was intense pressure to get South Carolina
out of the nuclear waste business. The landfill in Barnwell County then was
one of only two such facilities in the nation.
Lawmakers agreed to keep it open and continue accepting nuclear waste from
other states except North Carolina, which had not created a nuclear
landfill within its own borders. A plan to do that in the western corner of
Wake County, near Raleigh, N.C., has not materialized.
``The Legislature reasoned with the law of supply and demand, whatever the
traffic will bear, that there was very little choice about what to do with
nuclear waste, and we could collect whatever tax we imposed,'' said state
Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater.
Now a waste facility in Utah has started accepting nuclear waste and its
tax is $15 a ton. New techniques for storage and disposal also have changed
the game, Mr. Moore said.
``It is irresponsible and wrong to say that Chem-Nuclear has reneged on its
pledge to education in South Carolina,'' he said. ``There are intricate
dynamics and intricate politics involved.''
The Clearwater senator said he would support a fresh look at the
nuclear-waste tax.
State Rep. Roland Smith, R-Langley, said the Legislature should give
serious consideration to whether the tax, because it is so high, has had
the opposite effect from what lawmakers intended.
Mr. Smith, who serves on the state House Ways and Means Committee, said he
would support a reconsideration of the tax.
Democratic state Sen. Nikki G. Setzler, whose district cuts into Aiken
County, said it would be important, if the tax is reconsidered, not to
abandon the commitments to education it includes.
Chem-Nuclear's concern is that expectations are too high, Mr. Ebenhack
said. When anticipated revenues were figured, North Carolina's waste was
not removed from the equation, although South Carolina was determined not
to accept it anymore. Nor did anyone expect Utah to change the playing
field.
Chem-Nuclear has not asked to be freed from its obligation to pay $24
million into scholarships, Mr. Ebenhack said.
But company officials believe a lower tax would lead to increased volume
and equalize or increase revenues.
Under the present system, the landfill is generating about $140 million a
year for scholarships and school construction. The projection was $300
million a year.
While Chem-Nuclear has fallen short of the anticipated revenues, it has
given more than $135 million to school districts throughout the state and
funded more than $50 million in scholarships.