Article published December 7, 1990

New jail wetlands permit rejected

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has rejected a preliminary wetlands permit that would allow Spartanburg County to build a new jail on a California Avenue site. Nevertheless, county officials do not expect the decision to hurt efforts to construct a new jail there.

Assistant County Administrator Alan Ours said Corps officials told him this week that the federal agency, which oversees all permit applications in wetlands areas, would not summarily grant a development permit for the 43-acre proposed jail site, a small portion of which is considered a wetlands area.

County officials were still awaiting official notification yesterday. Ours said the decision does not mean the county will not get the permit, but that the Corps did not have enough information to make a decision.

Since federal law requires the Corps to notify the county within 20 days after the application is submitted, Corps officials rejected the initial permit to give them more time to consider the county's request. The county now has two options, Ours said. The first is to meet with Corps officials, then resubmit the summary application with additional information requested by the federal officials.

The second option is to submit a specific application with detailed environmental impact information.

Corps officials have recommended the county schedule a meeting with them, following the first option. Ours said the permit process should not block or significantly delay the jail project. He said the wetlands designated portion of the proposed construction site will not be needed for the initial jail construction and may not be needed when the jail is expanded later in the decade as planned. "We may not need it at all for construction. It may just be a buffer site," he said.

County officials are negotiating for the purchase of the site with agents for landowner Mildred Walker and have discussed condemning the property if negotiations are not successful. Officials, however, want assurances that they will be able to use the site for a new jail before acquiring the property, appraised to be worth $645,000.

Last month, the county commissioned an environmental survey of the property. In addition to mapping out the wetlands area, the survey determined the site was not contaminated by PCBs found on a neighboring property in 1984. However, some oil and grease contamination was found near the site of a former service station on the property.

Though the county would not be required to remove the contaminated soil, consultants recommended the area be cleaned of the oil stained soil at an estimated cost of $15,000. Environmental regulations could change and the removal could be more expensive later, the consultants said.

Earlier this year, architects selected the site bounded by California Avenue, Howard Street, Glenn Drive and El Paso Street as the best site for a new $15 million jail. Plans call for a 240-bed jail to be built. The jail plans will accommodate an expansion to house more than 620 inmates to meet future county needs.

The existing county jail had been consistently plagued with overcrowding problems. The county is spending about $1 million to convert a warehouse into a temporary 130-bed jail to help ease the overcrowding.

Meanwhile, the county had to use a cement-block building on the Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds this week to house inmates from a massive drug sweep in the county and to help handle jail overflow.

At one point this week, 260 inmates were in county custody. The county jail is only certified to hold 82 inmates and a contract with the Spartanburg City Jail was unable to handle the overflow.