PSCT Financials At-a-Glance

PSCT Funding Details

The Pinewood Site Custodial Trust (PSCT) was formed as a result of a settlement agreement between the Site’s last operator, Safety-Kleen, Inc., its affiliates and debtors and South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (“SCDHEC”). The settlement required Safety-Kleen to pay over $13 million to the PSCT and to fund a Site Trust Annuity that will pay the PSCT $105 million over 105 years. Currently, the annuity payout is approximately $1 million per year. It was intended to fund required closure and post-closure care of the Site in accordance with plans submitted by Safety-Kleen under applicable regulations and permits. The annuity was intended to provide for the engineering, scientific, construction, remediation, operation, maintenance, transportation, disposal, compliance and monitoring activities required by the plans and the various permits and regulations applicable to the facility over the next century. The fund also intended to provide for property management activities, including utilities, taxes, insurance and general maintenance.

The bankruptcy settlement also established the New Environmental Impairment Trust Fund (NEITF). Safety-Kleen paid an additional $14.5 million to the NEITF. Additional funds, in excess of $20.7 million, were added to the NEITF from a pre-existing environmental impairment trust fund established by Safety-Kleen and its predecessors. This $35 million NEITF was established for the sole benefit of SCDHEC to pay for the costs of:

• cleanup;

• restoration of environmental impairment; and

• addressing other environmental concerns at the Site.

The NEITF has been significantly depleted through use for cleanup and restoration at the Site.

In addition to the NEITF and its predecessor environmental impairment trust fund, a second fund is dedicated for use at the Site. Section 44-56-160(B)(1) of the South Carolina Code of Laws requires SCDHEC to hold in a separate and distinct fund 13% of certain fees collected from generators of hazardous wastes. This fund - known as the Permitted Sites Fund - can only be used for response actions arising from the operation of permitted hazardous waste land disposal facilities in the state. Pinewood is the only such facility.

Further, SCDHEC submits an annual recurring funding request to the General Assembly in order to fully fund the costs of the Site, based on the average annual Site expenditures for the last ten years.  The 2015-2016 S.C. Appropriations Act provided $3.981 million to SCDHEC for such purposes on a recurring basis. 

In January 2016, PSCT, through a stakeholder process, prepared a report for the legislature identifying capital improvements needed at the Site and funds needed to address these improvements.  In November 2016, the General Assembly provided $4,972,080 to PSCT for the capital improvement projects needed at the Site (the “Capital Improvement Projects Fund”).  As of January 31, 2018, the balance of the Capital Improvement Projects Fund is $4,566,062.