What’s next for the former Grainger plant site?

With Conway’s giant smokestacks reduced to heaps of concrete and brick, the final remnants of the Grainger Generating Station are being cleared away.

In the coming months, the 12-acre site that held the coal-fired power plant for half a century will be leveled and covered in sod.

But what will replace Grainger?

City leaders have been in talks with Santee Cooper about the state-run utility’s plans for the property and for Lake Busbee across U.S. 501. With the destruction of the Grainger smokestacks on Sunday, that conversation has grown louder.

Here’s a look at five issues surrounding the site’s future:

1. Cleanup time?

Bulldozers and other heavy equipment are clearing the property now. Santee Cooper spokeswoman Susan Mungo said the land will eventually become a grassy field with a road around it.

“We plan to have it cleared, graded [and] resodded by this summer,” she said.

2. Saving Lake Busbee

Man-made Busbee was built as a cooling lake for the plant. With Grainger no longer there, the question of who will continue pumping the water needed to maintain the lake has not been answered.

Busbee covers 300 acres and averages about 4 feet in depth. The trail surrounding the lake is popular with joggers and walkers.

Santee Cooper officials have said they will deed the lake to any entity qualified to manage it.

City officials insist they don’t want the site to drain and become a swampy eyesore.

“Nobody on City Council wants Lake Busbee to go away,” councilman Tom Anderson said. “I feel confident in that.”

3. Emptying ash ponds

Santee Cooper plans to continue moving ash from two ponds behind the former Grainger site.

Initially, the utility wanted to leave the ash there and cap the ponds, but the Southern Environmental Law Center sued and Santee Cooper agreed to empty the ponds, which contained an estimated 1.3 million tons of ash. Santee Cooper removed 164,145 tons of ash in 2014.

“We will continue hauling ash out of that, which is being recycled for useful products,” Mungo said. “The contract [date for removal] is 2023, but we plan to be finished by 2020.”

Recently, officials with R.J. Corman, the Kentucky-based company restoring rail service to the county, proposed hauling off the coal ash via train.

Corman officials say the ash could be removed in less than two years if Santee Cooper uses the railroad.

4. What happened to Grainger’s buildings and gear?

Some of the plant’s equipment loaders, instruments, brick pavers, small motors and even buildings were sold.

Some former Grainger employees had inquired about obtaining bricks from each of the 300-foot smokestacks, which were toppled Sunday in a series of controlled explosions.

What will happen to the bricks will ultimately be up to National Salvage and Service Corp., the company handling the demolition for Santee Cooper, Mungo said.

5. Future use

Santee Cooper has been discussing possible uses for the property with the city, Horry County and the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp.

When the cleanup is finished, Mungo said, the site will be “ready for new business, new industry.”

But Conway leaders have expressed interest in using the land for recreational purposes, such as converting the 12 acres into a park.

“Let’s just leave it alone,” Anderson said. “We don’t want an industrial site with trucks and equipment coming out of there. … I would love to see it as just somewhat of an extension of downtown Conway.”

He said City Council plans to meet with Santee Cooper officials soon to discuss the property’s potential.

This story was originally published February 9, 2016 at 6:45 PM with the headline "What’s next for the former Grainger plant site?."