| Sale of SRS land deemed unlikely AIKEN - There are no plans to sell or give away hunks of the sprawling Savannah River Site, a U.S. Department of Energy spokesman said Thursday. The department's stance dampens a nascent political push to have the federal agency hand over more than 4,000 acres to Aiken County for the creation of a horse park similar to Hitchcock Woods. "We have no intention of changing the site boundary," DOE spokesman Rick Ford said of the 198,000-acre nuclear reservation, created in 1950 from private land in Aiken and Barnwell counties. "If we ever divest ourselves of this land, it's our position that the original landowners should be given the right of first refusal." That isn't stopping Fred Christensen, a retired SRS employee and local developer, from touting an idea created by Aiken County Council member Scott Singer and putting it into political play. Mr. Christensen, who is also a member of the Aiken County Planning Commission and is in a partnership that is developing a 2,500-acre tract north of SRS into a community of horse farms, isn't shy about his personal stake in this proposal. He figures a county-owned horse park would double the value of his land, located just off Boggy Gut Road. "I'm stirring this pot as a private citizen, but I see a benefit for Aiken County," he said, noting the county's unsuccessful effort to get the DOE to pay a higher in-lieu-of-tax payment to county coffers. At the time it was opened, SRS needed a huge land buffer because the nuclear reactors used to create weapons-grade material were uncontained, like the Russian reactor in the Chernobyl disaster, Mr. Christensen said. With its Cold War mission over and its nuclear reactors shut down, SRS doesn't need all the land inside its boundaries, Mr. Singer said. The tract both men have targeted is home to the Savannah River Ecology Lab, which is run by the University of Georgia and sits on the north side of U.S. Highway 278, just southeast of New Ellenton. "It just seems with the mission winding down at the site, there just isn't the need for as much land as there was when SRS first opened," said Mr. Singer, who says the plan is in the preliminary stages. "If you look at what Hitchcock Woods has done for Aiken with the homes that surround it, it creates quite an amenity package. Is there a better use for this property than just having it sit there ... as a buffer for something that no longer exists?" But new missions at the site will need a home, Mr. Ford said. The DOE official cited a future use study conducted by his agency in 1996, which included public hearings and resulted in a consensus that SRS should keep all its land to provide a safety buffer and space for new missions. The tract eyed by Mr. Singer and Mr. Christensen is also the site of long-term ecological studies, said Mr. Ford, because, like a lot of SRS property, it has been undisturbed for more than 50 years. "A lot of our stakeholders feel like it would be good to keep our fence right where it is," Mr. Ford said.
Reach Jim Nesbitt at (803) 648-1395, ext. 111, or jim.nesbitt@augustachronicle.com. Scott Singerwants to convert part of the Savannah River Site into a horse park. Disputed land The nuclear reservation was created in 1950 and covers 310 square miles in Aiken and Barnwell counties. An Aiken County Councilman and a developer want the DOE to give up more than 4,000 acres on the north side of the plant for an equestrian park with riding trails.
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