CHARLESTON
In one of the largest settlements of its kind in recent S.C. history, a company accused by authorities of polluting the ocean with plastic agreed Wednesday to pay $1 million to the two Charleston-based environmental nonprofits that had been suing it.
While not admitting fault for previous plastic spills, the company, Frontier Logistics, promised to implement necessary upgrades in a new facility to ensure the small pellets it imports, packages and exports from South Carolina do not escape into the environment.
“We want to be a good partner to the community and we are concerned with the environment,” said George Cook, Frontier’s CEO. “We wanted to show them we’re not who they might think we are.”
Leaders from the two nonprofits, the Charleston Waterkeeper and the Coastal Conservation League, said they were satisfied with the proposed outcome of the lawsuit and hopeful about what the agreement could mean for the ecosystem.
“It’s important to do everything we can to protect environment integrity,” said Laura Cantral, executive director of the Coastal Conservation League. “This settlement is allowing us to do that by putting best practices in places for how to control these plastic pellets, and having resources to put toward good work that will further improve the health of the harbor.”
Should the settlement be approved by the court, the $1 million award will be used to fund projects that will benefit Charleston Harbor.
In July 2019, after receiving complaints about plastic pellets found on nearby beaches, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control inspected the facility on Union Pier that Frontier was renting from the S.C. Ports Authority. The site is located directly above the water near the S.C. Aquarium and historic waterfront parks. That month, the agency attributed the spillage of plastic to Frontier and alleged the company had violated a state pollution law. But when Frontier later denied responsibility and told authorities it had made an effort to clean local beaches, DHEC closed the investigation without issuing a penalty.
The Charleston Waterkeeper has worked with a team of volunteers since 2019 to document the location and quantity of discarded plastic pellets, called nurdles, along the S.C. coast. The surveys have indicated the highest concentration of nurdles are consistently found close to where Frontier was working on Union Pier, the Waterkeeper has said. Scientists believe marine plastic poses a serious health risk to humans and animals. When broken down into smaller particles over time, the leftover microplastic can be consumed by sea life, and eventually, people.
To get Frontier to pay for what they contend was a violation of federal laws meant to protect natural resources, and to stop additional pollution, the nonprofits filed the lawsuit against the company last March.
“I’m not sure DHEC had the ability to bring that kind of litigation,” said Catherine Wannamaker, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, the legal nonprofit that represented the two Charleston groups. “We got a great result on behalf of the environment and everyone in Charleston.”
At least five other companies working in South Carolina are in the nurdles industry, and Jim Newsome, the S.C. Ports Authority president and CEO, has said he expects the businesses to export around 400% more plastic by 2023.
“That growth cannot come at the expense of our waterways and beaches,” said Andrew Wunderley, the acting Waterkeeper. “The message has to be: If you come here to do business on our waterways, you’ve got to wash your hands and feet.”
The pending settlement would end a year-long court battle that pitted the environmental groups not just against Frontier, whose nurdles are manufactured by the Texas-based petrochemical company Chevron Phillips Chemical, but also against Frontier’s previous landlord.
The environmental groups served the Ports Authority a subpoena last August hoping to receive documents from the taxpayer-funded agency about its tenant. But the quasi-public state group declined to comply with the summons, claiming it shouldn’t have to because of its immunity as part of the government. After the judge presiding over the case in South Carolina District Court dismissed most of the Port Authority’s arguments and ordered the agency to hand over the documents to the nonprofits, the Ports Authority still tried to avoid the task by appealing the judge’s decision.
In October, reporting by The State Media Co. revealed for the first time that Newsome and Frontier’s CEO shared a friendly relationship. Emails published by the newspaper showed Newsome offered to shield the company from public scrutiny after DHEC found evidence of pollution at Union Pier — despite acknowledging internally that Frontier’s facilities were prone to spillage and holding the company financially responsible for clean-up costs.
S.C. Ports Authority representatives could not immediately be reached for comment.
Frontier has since moved its nurdle packaging operations to a new warehouse built on a site previously used by the U.S. Navy in North Charleston. In 2018, Frontier paid the S.C. Department of Commerce $6.3 million to purchase the land, the agency confirmed. As part of the settlement agreement, the company will allow an independent auditor and nurdle pollution expert to recommend how it can prevent pellets from escaping the warehouse, which is located less than a mile from the Cooper River.
The environmental groups believe the promise to heed the expert advice, coupled with Frontier’s financial investment in the local ecosystem, could serve as an example for others using the waterways to do business.
“It’s our hope that it’ll make that facility sort of a gold standard,” said the Waterkeeper.
Cantral, of the Coastal Conservation League, voiced similar optimism.
“Often the work that we do is incremental,” she said. “To have something really tangible and meaningful like this, it’s a great day.”
This story was originally published March 03, 2021 5:27 PM.
