COLUMBIA--Lawmakers have asked the state attorney general whether it's legal to help balance South Carolina's roughly $5 billion budget by using funds that were originally set aside for environmental protection programs.

The group of legislators, three senators and two House members, sent a letter Thursday to Attorney General Henry McMaster seek- ing a legal opinion on a proposal to take nearly $16 million from 15 special environmental accounts.

The accounts include money to clean up leaking underground storage tanks across the state and funds to protect wildlife and parks. One of the biggest accounts includes cleaning up hazardous waste near Lake Marion.

The House's version of the budget would eliminate the account for cleanup of toxic waste near Lake Marion, but the Senate Finance Committee agreed this week not to take more than $10 million from the fund.

The other money is mostly interest taken on the established environmental funds and senators agreed with the House proposal to take the interest.

House leaders who voted to take the funds said they were given little choice because the state faces a revenue shortfall for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The South Carolina Wildlife Federation released a report last year criticizing the legislators for raiding the funds and issued a statement Thursday saying lawmakers need to leave the special environmental accounts alone.

The funds "were meant to be a long-term investment for all South Carolinians and not an easy way to balance the general fund budget," federation director Angela Viney said.

Legislators took $53.4 million from environmental protection accounts to help balance the state's current budget.

McMaster's opinion would be nonbinding, but lawmakers said it could help the Senate during budget deliberations, which will begin in a couple of weeks.

The lawmakers asking for the opinion are Sens. John Drummond, D-Ninety Six, Phil Leventis, D-Sumter and Greg Gregory, R-Lancaster, and state Reps. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, and David Weeks, D-Sumter.