COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – South Carolina senators are studying legislation to crack down on companies that pollute state waters with tiny plastic pellets.
A Senate Medical Affairs subcommittee voted 3-2 on Wednesday to approve a bill that would give the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control the power to directly regulate state pellet producers, approving licenses and applying violations.
Pellets, also known as nurdles, are pieces of plastic similar to beads, used to make larger plastic products. Many of these pellets are exported through the port of Charleston, where residents of the area have complained in recent years of finding pellets obstructing local waterways.
Senator Sandy Senn, R-Charleston, the project’s sponsor, said the legislation was necessary because the pellet industry would only continue to grow in the state.
In a recent dispute over the origins of a 2019 pellet spill on Sullivan’s Island, pelletizing company Frontier Logistics paid $ 1 million to two environmental groups that had sued over the alleged pollution.
City council member Sarah Church told lawmakers on Wednesday that pellets were “the most insidious pollutant that has ever existed”.
Environmentalists who speak in favor of the bill said that pellets are virtually impossible to clean due to their size and quantity and cause damage to animals, including sea turtles and migratory birds in passing, which can mistake them for nutritious horseshoe crab or fish eggs.
Senator Billy Garrett, R-McCormick, expressed the need to support business, but added: “On the other hand, as my mother used to say, cleanliness is close to holiness.”
No one testified against the bill on Wednesday. The legislation now goes to the Senate Medical Affairs committee.