{"id":3457,"date":"2026-07-20T20:10:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T20:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=3457"},"modified":"2026-07-20T20:10:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T20:10:02","slug":"s-c-agency-proposed-charging-man-2-4-million-for-school-pollution-records-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usmovingexpertss.com\/?p=3457","title":{"rendered":"S.C. agency proposed charging man $2.4 million for school pollution records"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

Worried about chemical pollution that had been found in the soil of a new elementary school, Brady Hill asked South Carolina\u2019s environmental agency for records that would detail the threat children face when they romp on the playground during recess.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018I\u2019m in.\u2019 SC\u2019s Darline Graham says she will run for full term to U.S. Senate<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But the price tag for seeing those records was something few people could afford. It would cost him $2.4 million for the records, the S.C. Department of Environmental Services said. And he\u2019d have to make a $605,000 deposit for the agency to even process his Freedom of Information Act request.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hill was stunned.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat went through my mind was \u2018What the hell?\u2019 \u2018\u2019 Hill said. \u201cI was surprised. But then I said this is them telling me no, without telling me no.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The S.C. Department of Environmental Services response is believed to be one of the highest amounts ever proposed to pay for an open records request in South Carolina \u2014- and it drew blistering criticism from an array of sources.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Some said the agency was trying to hide information about a growing problem with forever chemical pollution that it doesn\u2019t want to deal with in eastern South Carolina. Other critics said department staffers were not competent enough to properly respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the most ridiculous thing I\u2019ve ever heard,\u2019\u2019 said state Rep. Joseph Bustos, a Charleston area Republican critical of the agency\u2019s efforts to control forever chemical pollution in South Carolina. \u201cIt\u2019s an effort to dissuade them from … getting information. If somebody can\u2019t afford to pay, they (DES) are clearly trying to stop it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Brad Turley, a Chesterfield County landowner who has had extensive dealings with DES over its environmental protection policies, said the response may be more basic than an effort to hide information.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More likely, it\u2019s an example of an agency that is too rooted in procedure that doesn\u2019t stress that employees use common sense, he said. Had department staff members thought about it, they would have realized that sending Hill notice that the cost to fulfill his request would be $2.4 million is ridiculous, Turley said. Either way, the agency\u2019s bureaucracy has failed children, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir management team is letting down a bunch of children and they are playing financial games that are absurd,\u2019\u2019 Turley said. \u201cYou are not taking care of kids. You play this financial game of $2.4 million for public information? The absurdity of this is surreal.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hill submitted the open records request to find out why the environmental department said the playground was safe, even though the agency had found measurable levels of forever chemical pollution in the soil at Black Creek Elementary School in Darlington County.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Forever chemicals are contaminants of growing concern across the country and in South Carolina. They can cause an array of ailments, ranging from certain types of cancer to thyroid problems in those who are exposed. Exposure is largely through ingestion, but exposure to polluted soil also can carry hazards.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hill, a 42-year-old septic tank installer who is running for Darlington County Council, asked for emails, test results of forever chemicals, a risk assessment the agency used to determine the site was safe, soil sample analysis reports and modeling data. The emails he was seeking included correspondence between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Environmental Services.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He asked the agency to let him know if the cost would exceed $100. Information Hill sought included data on forever chemicals known as PFOA and PFOS that have been found on the Black Creek Elementary School property.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The department told him his request would generate more than 3 million emails, which drove up the cost of complying with the request. The agency suggested he refine his request. Hill said he was looking only for information during the past six months on the school property.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hill said he believes the agency knows it was mistaken. A staff member called him at 6:30 p .m. Friday, a time after agency business hours, to tell him she would look into the matter.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In an email Monday to The State, the department said it will not charge $2.4 million. It was only trying to explain that to respond, it would require releasing more than three million documents, according to an email from spokeswoman Laura Renwick.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The agency is now working to fulfill an updated open records request, she said. Renwick did not provide a cost estimate. The department called the July 5 open records request \u201cextremely broad, including every agency email containing the words PFAS and PFOS, rather than exclusively targeting the topic of interest.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Read more S.C. agency proposed charging man $2.4 million for school pollution records<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In response, Hill said Monday that his request was clear that all he wanted was information about the elementary school, which is not overly broad.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re trying to cover their tracks,\u2019\u2019 Hill said. \u201cStuff pertaining to the school was all I was asking for. I was pretty specific.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At issue is the discovery earlier this year of forever chemicals in the soil at Black Creek Elementary School, which opened in 2025 with about 700 students.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contractors built the school on land that had once been used as a sludge disposal site by an industry that for decades sent the waste material to area farmers for use as fertilizer. This past spring, after the school opened, a group of local residents and The State newspaper found out about the land\u2019s previous use for sludge disposal by the Galey and Lord textile plant.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The site is among some 300 farm fields in the area that the state approved for use by Galey and Lord for sludge disposal, only to learn years later that the sludge was contaminated with forever chemicals. A handful of fields approved by the state environmental agency for sludge spreading beginning in the 1990s later showed high levels of forever chemicals in the dirt, according to government tests and research by Yale University.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That has left farmers and landowners wanting to know more about the potentially widespread pollution from Galey and Lord, a now abandoned property in Society Hill that is a federal Superfund cleanup site.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Officials with the Department of Environmental Services revealed last month that forever chemicals had been found in the soil at Black Creek Elementary, but said the department and the EPA had done risk assessments that determined the pollution was not of immediate concern.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The highest levels for PFOA were 1,200 parts per trillion. The highest levels for PFOS were 7,100 parts per trillion, the agency reported at the time.. Hill is seeking more information.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The agency suggested the school district take steps, such as putting grass, mulch or other material on the school playgrounds to \u201cfurther reduce any potential exposure.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jay Bender, an attorney and expert on the state\u2019s open records law, said the Department of Environmental Services didn\u2019t need to charge anything.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Under the state\u2019s Freedom of Information Act, any agency can waive fees to provide public information if it is in the public interest, Bender said in an email.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think that disclosing information that might be relevant to the health and safety of school children at a specific school would be in the public interest and available at no charge,\u2019\u2019 Bender said in an email to The State.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The problem, he said, is that the law also allows agencies to charge for the time it takes to redact certain parts of FOIA responses. Agencies, he said, often use this section of the law to avoid providing information, he said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic bodies have embraced this charge as a method to impose financial barriers to the disclosure of public records,\u2019\u2019 Bender said in an email. \u201cEven with public bodies gleefully asserting proposed charges that seem to bear no relationship to reality, I have not heard of a $2.5 million demand for retrieval of public records.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe open records law is quite clear that the assertion of exemptions from mandatory disclosure is discretionary with the public body. In other words, very little information is required to be redacted.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Criticism about the environmental department\u2019s responses to the public isn\u2019t the first the agency has encountered this year. In March, the agency threatened to sue a local farmer for putting up signs with the department\u2019s logo on it about an upcoming public meeting.<\/p>\n

Read more Laundry room fire in apartment complex leaves 5 without a home, SC officials say<\/a><\/p>\n

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The S.C. 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