From the Anderson Independant 10/3/2009: "If some Anderson leaders succeed in their plan, the county will have a world-class education and environmental center on Lake Hartwell.

The proposed 32,000-square-foot center would be constructed on 21 acres adjoining the Anderson Joint Regional Water System property. It would feature exhibits related to the lake, have fishing piers, boat access, walking trails and an outdoor amphitheater.

Officials said the Water Education and Environmental Center could be a major tourist draw to Anderson and the Upstate. Already, its backers have a 25-year lease from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to use the property for a center.

“The goals of the WEEC are to educate the public and our children, to overcome the negative stigma associated with a polluted lake and to improve the fishing access to Hartwell Lake,” said Carl Edwards, executive director of the Abney Foundation and member of the WEEC Steering Committee.

The stickler, however, is whether the group backing the center can persuade trustees overseeing an $8.9 million disbursement from the 2006 Restoration and Compensation Determination Plan to help pay for the facility.

Edwards said backers of the project are forming a non-profit organization and are seeking $7 million from trustees toward the project’s $14 million price tag. The rest of the money will be raised through gifts, donations and in-kind services.

The compensation fund is part of a settlement between Schlumberger Technology Co. and a number of government agencies seeking to clean up PCBs in Hartwell Lake and Twelve Mile Creek. A capacitor plant built near Twelve Mile Creek used the toxic material from 1955 to 1977. Schlumberger bought the company that owned the plant, and became responsible for the cleanup.

Twelve Mile Creek empties into Hartwell Lake.

The consent agreement requires Schlumberger to pay nearly $12 million for PCB-related damage to the creek and the lake, and also do an ecological project, worth $8 to $10 million, that includes removal of two of three dams along the creek.

By removing the dams, it would allow sediment to cover the PCB already in the soil and prevent further exposure.

Earlier this year, after it was reported no substantial work had been done to remove the dams, a federal judge ordered the parties back into court and appointed two special receivers to report on their progress. Recently, U.S. District Court Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr. said those involved in the project to remove the dams had agreed on most of the work to be done.

A hearing Oct. 13 in federal court in Anderson would provide an update on the project, plus allow comment on a new proposal to remove a third dam along Twelve Mile Creek.

The Pickens County Council passed a resolution on Sept. 14 asking the third dam be removed, using settlement funds. And a river restoration expert, Larry Dyck, a former Clemson professor, has said it would open up the river to recreational use.

Leon Harmon, one of the special receivers, was not available to comment, but Anderson’s law clerk, Derek Shoemake, said it would be up to the trustees to decide how the money is to be used. The court could have some comment on the issue of the third dam and the education project, too, he said.

The money could go toward dual projects, Shoemake said.

“There’s not a conflict and it has to be one or the other,” Shoemake said.

Edwards and Robert Rainey, who also is spearheading the Hartwell Lake education project, said others have since developed proposals for the settlement funds. They did not know what those plans were.

The WEEC project already has picked up support from Anderson’s county government.

“The majority of council sees it as one of the most significant things that can take place at Lake Hartwell,” said Rusty Burns, interim Anderson County administrator. “It would not only provide a value resource here but possibly turn into a major tourist draw to bring people to the area.”

No funding is available from the council, he said, but if revenues improve “several members of the council have expressed the possibility that could occur.”

Goodwyn Mills & Cawood has been selected as the design firm. Kevin Laird, project manager for the company, said plans to make the facility a platinum-level LEEDS design “would raise the bar from a sustainable building standpoint in the area.” The center would use no city water and rely on rainfall to generate water displays, he said.

Trees from the property would be used in construction and as fish habitat, Laird said. The present Honea Path Boat Ramp would be expanded.

One major component of the center would be classrooms and displays for K-12 students, and for Tri-County Technical College programs, Laird and Edwards said. The center would feature trails, fishing information for the lake, exhibits on water quality, animal habitats, PCB restoration and environmental stewardship, according to a statement.

It would have laboratories for use by classes, the Department of Health and Environmental Control and others, Edwards said

Edwards said the project is overdue.

“If this facility had been here 30 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this situation we’re in now,” he said, referring to the PCB problem.

Burns said development of the project “would be the most significant thing to happen on Hartwell Lake in 30 years.”"