GREENVILLE, S.C. - Attorney General Henry McMaster has asked legislators to give the state grand jury authority to investigate environmental crimes.

The U.S. attorney's office has handled most of the state's high-profile environmental cases in the past, but McMaster and some environmentalists say the new attention on counterterrorism and homeland security could affect the time federal officials can spend prosecuting environmental crimes.

"There is a very reasonable likelihood that as federal resources are used to respond to terrorism and international threats, it leaves the state without any power to approach matters of interest to the state," he said.

The state is limited to investigating environmental crimes using police procedures such as eyewitness testimony. Grand juries can compel testimony and subpoena documents. Noncooperation carries legal penalties.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control performs investigations but does not have the broad legal authority of a grand jury. DHEC supports McMaster's proposal, said spokesman Thom Berry.

"We have advocated this in the past," he said.

Bob Guild, an environmental attorney in Columbia, said giving the grand jury power over environmental crimes will deter potential polluters.

"The grand jury system in South Carolina is an antique remnant of a time when criminal acts were localized and unsophisticated," Guild said. "The system we really need is one like exists in most other states, where grand juries have broader territorial jurisdictions."

Guild said the current system is so weak, nobody knows exactly how many other polluters have not been prosecuted.

A state grand jury could have helped two major investigations in the past few years.

State health officials found 59 contaminants in 3,500 drums buried on a five-acre site in southern Greenville County. Some of the contaminants were suspected to cause paralysis, birth defects and brain damage in high doses.

The landowner, Calvin Kellett, buried waste there for about 10 years starting in the 1960s, but didn't know the materials could be harmful, his lawyer said. He also said DHEC issued permits for the dumping. DHEC officials at the time said they had no knowledge of issuing hazardous waste permits to Kellett, who has since died.

Greenville prosecutor Bob Ariail said the grand jury's power to compel testimony could have helped.

In another case, then-Attorney General Charlie Condon handed prosecution of Tin Products of Lexington over to federal officials. Tin Products was accused of a chemical spill that killed thousands of fish and threatened drinking water. Three company officials eventually pleaded guilty.

When the state grand jury was created in 1988, it only had power to look into multi-county drug rings and multi-county pornography, McMaster said. Since then, its scope has been expanded to include public corruption, election fraud, computer crimes, terrorism and securities fraud.

"They don't pollute in the light of day with witnesses around. They do it in ways to avoid detection," Guild said. "Right now, environmental criminals are able to hide their crimes and tell the state they're not going to cooperate."

Information from: The Greenville News