COASTAL OBSERVER

The citizens of Georgetown are concerned about the future of the International Paper Co. mill site. Really concerned. Enough so that there are three groups that share similar names.

Citizens for Georgetown was started earlier this year to oppose plans to expand the paper mill’s power plant and generate electricity by burning biomass. It was started by Tom Swatzel, a political consultant and former County Council member, who is its only publicly-identified member.

Citizens for Georgetown  (Common Sense Edition) was started this month by Shawn James, who spent 30 years working in the power plant.  He created a Facebook page to support redevelopment of the plant.

“We are very concerned,” said Bill Crowther, who is part of a third group, Georgetown Concerned Citizens. “We don’t want this coming to the IP site.”

His group registered with the S.C. Secretary of State’s Office in March and just received its nonprofit tax status, he said.

Crowther is the former director of the county’s Alliance for Economic Development. He started the Concerned Citizens with J.C. Sutton, a Pawleys Island resident who has an oil and gas business.  A third members is an environmental lawyer living in Washington, D.C.

“We want to steer IP in the right direction,” Crowther said.

They don’t oppose biomass, just in the proposed site on the Georgetown waterfront, he said.

International Paper has solicited letters of intent from potential buyers. Those involved in the process said the deadline for submissions was extended last month.

Among the participants is a developer who also has a contract to purchase the Liberty Steel mill site and who doesn’t want smokestack industry on the IP site. The biomass plant is being proposed by another bidder who also plans a data center, a sawmill and two wood products operations on the site.

Santee Cooper and Santee Electric Cooperative have also said they are part of a bid, although they have not said if they are involved with other private partners.

James said he was told by contacts within IP that there are seven bidders in all. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.

He started his Common Sense Edition after the original Citizens for Georgetown put out a poll that claimed residents don’t support smokestack industry on the IP site. James was among those who received the poll on their phones. “A lot of IP people got it,” he said.

James didn’t respond, at least not to the poll, which he said was a push-poll designed to raise opposition to the biomass plan.

“A biomass plant is there. It’s been there for 90 years,” James said.

He conducted his own poll with three options: keep the site industrial and reopen the power plant; turn the site into a “tourist hub”; or undecided. The biomass plant got 96 percent of the vote.

“I didn’t skew it,” James said.

After the original Citizens for Georgetown announced an online petition opposing the plant, the Common Sense Edition started a petition in support. James pointed out that his petition garnered more signatures, 1,250, than the other group, 650. James also noted that with over 1,500 followers, his Facebook page has three times as many as the original Citizens for Georgetown.

“The citizens of Georgetown are speaking,” James said.

They also spoke at a meeting organized by opponents to the biomass plant. It was the third such meeting and it drew about 70 people, including former IP workers and residents of the city’s West End who live next to the mill. The S.C. Environmental Law Project, the Coastal Conservation League and the Sierra Club have all pledged to help opponents.

Lafaye Moultrie talked about living in the shadow of the mill and its plume of smoke, and about her father’s death from cancer at age 54 while working at the mill. “We didn’t know any better back in the day,” she said.

Moultrie doesn’t want to see the power plant restarted.

Dave Parsons, who worked in the plant for 40 years, said burning wood products left by timber harvesting is a clean and renewable source of energy.

“Have you ever seen black smoke coming out of the paper mill?” he asked.

Complaints about the smell from the mill were due to the paper making process. That won’t be coming back, Parsons said.

But Parsons was among those at the meeting who said that details of what is planned by the various bidders for the site have been lacking.

“We need facts, not emotions,” said a West End resident who goes by the name Brother Willie.

Another speaker pointed out that residents have asked the city and county councils to hold a meeting about the future of the IP site. None have been scheduled.

Paul Burkitt, a Georgetown resident, was at all three meetings about biomass. He said it was clear that opinions aren’t going to change in spite of the debate.

“Talking is only going to get you so far,” he said. “We need to figure out how to take action.”