The Georgetown Times: Discovering Oil

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SERVING GEORGETOWN COUNTY SINCE 1798
Friday ll January 23, 2015 50¢
NAACP asks for new school boat
By Taylor Griffith
[email protected]
Around 25 people crowded the docks at the
Sandy Island Boat Ramp at noon on Jan. 21
as the Georgetown County NAACP hosted a
meeting with county officials to discuss the safety of
the state’s last school boat.
“We’ve been trying for
years to get a new boat,” said
NAACP chapter President
Morris Johnson. “The time
is now. We need something
done, and we’re asking the
school board along with
county council to resolve
this.”
Johnson
TAYLOR GRIFFITH/SOUTH STRAND NEWS
The school boat is 50 years
Members of the Georgetown County NAACP and the Georgetown County School old, according to Charles Pyatt, a Sandy Island
Board gather on the docks leading to Sandy Island on Jan. 21 to discuss the Sandy resident who sometimes drives the boat. A
Island school boat, which can be seen at far left.
quick tour of the cabin reveals the inside reeks
of diesel fuel, and Pyatt said when the engine
is turned on, the passengers – this year, 10
children – are inhaling the fumes.
“We need a new vessel,” he said. “Any diesel
fumes inhaled over time will take an effect
on the body. There’s no way this boat can be
diesel fuel-free with this engine in it.”
Pyatt continued, “This boat maybe has two
or three trips and then it starts acting up. …
The school board and the county need to get
together and solve this problem.”
The NAACP had other complaints about the
boat, as well, including that while the wharf is
handicap accessible, the boat is not.
Dr. Arthur Lance, vice chair of the Georgetown County School District board of education and District 7 representative, which includes Sandy Island, agreed the issue needs
to be resolved.
“We have 10 kids involved with this. We want
See BOAT, Page 6A
Discovering oil
Georgetown County businessmen
spearhead S.C. oil and gas initiative
By Eileen Keithly
South Strand News
There is not a single oil or gas
well in South Carolina, but that
may soon change dramatically
– and the state needs to chart a
course for development of oil and
gas resources that creates thousands of new jobs while safeguarding the environment.
That is the message and mission
of three businessmen with roots
in Georgetown County who have
formed an organization to bring
together industry, environmental
and citizen interests to promote
responsible development of onshore and offshore oil and gas
resources in South Carolina.
Pawley’s Island businessmen
Francis “Jeepy” Ford III, Justin
Sutton and Perry Collins formed
the South Carolina Oil and Gas
Association a year ago, with a goal
of providing public education on
the oil and gas industry.
“Oil and gas are coming to South
Carolina,” Sutton said in a recent
interview. “Our organization was
formed to foster positive growth
for the energy industry, provide
public outreach education to inform South Carolinians about the
industry, and help demonstrate
that oil and gas development and
environmental stewardship are
mutually achievable.”
Ford, whose family has owned
land in Georgetown County for
See OIL, Page 2A
DREAMSTIME
Revitalization for Georgetown
Simply the best:
Campaign aims
to attract visitors
Groups make plans
for city revamp
By Taylor Griffith
[email protected]
After speaking with 100
people and 16 entities over
the course of three days, five
community meetings and
two general public meetings,
the South Carolina branch
of a national community revitalization group has a plan
for bringing Georgetown into
its prime.
As of Jan. 1, Georgetown is
the newest member of Main
Street South Carolina, a
group that helps municipalities revitalize entire communities by rebuilding a healthy
economic and historic downtown.
To start Georgetown’s membership in the group, which
City Economic Development
Director Tee Miller applied
for last October, four Main
Street professionals spent
Jan. 12 through 15 in town
gathering a
baseline assessment.
The team
c on s i s t e d
of Beppie
L eGrand,
execut ive
director
for Main
Street S.C.,
LaNelle FaLeGrand
bian, director of Main Street Beaufort,
Randy Wilson, president of
Community Design Solutions, and Jonathan Irick,
director of Main Street Laurens.
After touring the community and talking to a variety
of stakeholders, including the
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A look along Front Street in historic Georgetown.
general public, the team presented a preliminary report
on Jan. 15 in City Hall to the
public and members of The
Georgetown Partnership, the
nonprofit formed last year to
be the city’s branch of Main
Street S.C.
Main Street follows a fourpoint approach for redevelopment – organization, design,
promotion and economic
restructuring – and the preClassifieds ... B5
Crossword ... B2
sentation in Georgetown discussed how those elements
will be used in the city.
Organization
LeGrand described the organization point of the process as “keeping all of the
balls in the air at the same
time.”
The most important goal
See REVAMP, Page 6A
The Georgetown County
Tourism Management Commission has unveiled the latest evolution of the Hammock
Coast’s National Ad Campaign
— “Best. Vacation. Ever” —
with relaxing beach, exceptional seafood and awardwinning golf playing a starring role in the new creative.
Announced at the January
TMC monthly cohort, the
new campaign does not suggest, but rather stakes claim,
to the statement that Georgetown County is the “Best. Vacation. Ever.”
Tourism Marketing Director
Lauren Joseph said the rollout of the campaign would
begin immediately, starting
Obituaries ... A5
Sports ... B1
with travel directory-size ads
in Southern Living and regional billboards in partnership with the South Carolina
Department of Tourism.
The concept, created by local
advertising agency C.A.S.E.
Solutions, was unanimously
approved by all members of
the Tourism Management
Commission.
“We’re excited about this
new direction for the Hammock Coast and how in so
few words it perfectly sums
up a Georgetown County vacation,” Joseph said. “We were
seeking a creative concept
that would really allow us to
focus on all of the extraordi-
See BEST, Page 6A
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2A
OIL
and information about those
improvements will be part of
the public education process.
FROM PAGE 1A
more than 200 years, emphasized that environmental
protections should be a key
part of oil and gas development. “I’m a firm believer in
leaving no trace,” said Ford,
an avid outdoorsman who
grew up hunting and fishing
in the undisturbed wilds of
Georgetown County.
Ford and Sutton stressed
that their organization is inclusive. They want as many
voices as possible – including environmental groups –
to have a place at the table in
fostering responsible oil and
gas development policies.
Sutton, who worked in the
oil and gas industry in San Diego, California, before “falling
in love with the Lowcountry”
and moving to South Carolina in 2008, pointed out that
state law is virtually silent on
offshore oil and gas development. States have jurisdiction
over any drilling within five
miles of their coasts, he said,
but only one section of South
Carolina law minimally addresses drilling within one
mile of the coast. “That is
a void that needs to be addressed,” Sutton said.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Support from leaders
EILEEN KEITHLY/SOUTH STRAND NEWS
From left, Justin Sutton and Francis “Jeepy” Ford III
pore over seismic maps at the Georgetown SCOGA office showing oil and gas resources in South Carolina. Development factors
There are several factors
pointing to the development
of both onshore and offshore
oil and gas resources in the
state, according to SCOGA.
The Obama administration
in September approved a reopening of off-shore oil and
gas exploration along the
East Coast, allowing seismic
surveys to determine the location of resources beneath
the ocean floor, including off
South Carolina’s coast. Based
on those surveys, the U.S. Department of the Interior could
open offshore areas to drilling in the next round of federal offshore leases extending
from 2017 to 2022. Congress
and the administration would
still have to approve legislation lifting a moratorium on
offshore oil and gas production along the East Coast.
SCOGA believes onshore oil
and gas development is more
likely to occur first, because
of known formations — the
Florence Basin formation and
the Daniel River formation
extending from North Carolina. In addition, natural gas
pipelines crisscrossing South
Carolina are either in construction or being planned,
giving developers a way to tie
their wells into pipelines.
Sutton noted that onshore
oil and gas development is
also the quickest path to creating new jobs in the state.
“Jobs, jobs, jobs,” he said.
“That is what this state needs
the most right now.”
For the long-term, offshore
oil and gas development holds
the most promise for job creation, according to SCOGA. It
cites previous studies showing reserves with an estimated 3.8 trillion cubic feet
of gas and 6.5 billion barrels
of oil within a few miles of
the South Carolina coast.
Unlike deepwater drilling
in the Gulf of Mexico, those
reserves could be tapped in
ocean waters that are only a
few hundred feet deep. With
the development of those resources, SCOGA points to an
American Petroleum Institute report estimating that
South Carolina could gain
11,000 direct jobs by 2035
from offshore oil and gas
drilling in the Atlantic.
As part of a strategy for oil
and gas development in the
state, SCOGA notes that, similar to Louisiana, South Carolina could set up a system for
collecting royalty revenues of
37.5 percent on offshore oil
revenues, generating $850
million per year by 2035, with
much of the money dedicated
to education and environmental preservation.
Creating awareness
For now, Ford and Sutton
are focused on public education about the benefits and responsibilities that come with
developing South Carolina’s
oil and gas resources.
They are in the process of
recruiting members for their
association, who will come together in forums to discuss issues such as overall environmental stewardship, royalty
revenue sharing, hydraulic
fracturing and protection of
offshore marine life. “The
goal is to create an awareness
of how we can move forward
while protecting the environment,” Ford said.
Sutton and Ford acknowledge there will be challenges.
For instance, they will have to
counter negative perceptions
about the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing
(known commonly as “fracking”) used in shale oil production, which has stirred controversy in neighboring North
Carolina. Fracking involves
high-pressure injection of water and other chemicals into
shale formations to release
gas trapped in fissures. Environmental groups contend
fracking chemicals can affect
water supplies.
Proponents of fracking say
it can be done with adequate
safeguards to protect water
resources, and note this has
been done successfully in
Pennsylvania and other states.
Sutton noted that South Carolina law requires public disclosure of all chemicals used in
the fracking process as well as
safe storage of salty water collected from the process.
SCOGA also faces a challenge in educating the public
that drilling can occur safely
off the coast of tourism-dependent South Carolina, after
the 2010 Deepwater Horizon
oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
that damaged coastlines
in Louisiana, Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida. The
Coastal Conservation League
in South Carolina is opposed
to offshore drilling. Sutton
and Ford say drilling technology and safeguards have
been improved as a result of
the Deepwater Horizon spill,
SCOGA’s mission of making
South Carolina an energyproducing state has political
support among most Republican officeholders. Gov. Nikki
Haley is a strong advocate.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham
introduced legislation in 2012
to open up the South Carolina coast to offshore drilling.
More recently, in April 2014,
U.S. Sen. Tim Scott sponsored the Southern Energy
Access Jobs Act, which also
would lift the moratorium on
off-shore oil drilling along
Atlantic states, and authorize collection of 37.5 percent
of offshore revenues by states.
Ford and Sutton noted that
Scott’s legislation includes
the key element of job training in connection with oil and
gas development. Currently,
they say, there are 135 new
jobs that would be created
just during offshore exploration, and job training will be
associated with those jobs.
SCOGA also wants to see
alliances formed between
the oil and gas industry and
South Carolina’s colleges and
universities, providing grants
and other financial aid to students pursuing degrees that
can lead to jobs in the industry. Already, Sutton said,
there are professors incorporating information about the
oil and gas industry into their
coursework.
“We formed SCOGA so that
the people of South Carolina
would have an active voice in
an industry that is coming
to our state,” he said. “This
is my home. This is where I
live, where I hunt, and where
I fish. I want to be as educated
about this industry as I can
possibly be, and by forming
SCOGA, I want to share that
education with others.”
Ford and Sutton encourage
South Carolinians to contact
the association and get involved. They can be reached
through their website: www.
scoga.us or by phone at 843240-2702 for Ford or 760594-7193 for Sutton.
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