COLUMBIA, S.C. — It's back to work for crews at the site of the massive electric vehicle plant coming to Blythewood in Richland county.
That's after the U.S. Army Corp of engineers gave Scout Motors a permit saying they can continue construction work that was originally stopped over concerns over wetlands damage.
The new Scout Plant will be off of Interstate 77 in the northern part of Richland County. But there are still questions and concerns about the plant's impact on the environment and the community awaits answers.
"It's scary. Change is scary, and change is uncertain," said Blythewood Mayor Sloan Griffin. "There are 2 sides to the coin, heads and tails. So, there are people that are excited, they're excited from the 4,000 jobs, they're excited from a business standpoint because there are businesses in Blythewood that will be able to provide some type of service to Scout."
Construction will resume over the span of 1,600 acres in Blythewood, where the Scout Motors manufacturing plant will soon be located.
Last September, Scout paused work after concerns were raised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) saying they found evidence of wetlands damage before the permit was issued.
"We are in an information sharing phase right now," Griffin explained.
After months of uncertainty not knowing whether the $2 billion electric vehicle plant would move forward, the permit has now been issued.
Scout also made new proposals to do more to protect wetlands as part of the permit process.
A spokesperson for the company said in a statement that they're pleased to restart their work, saying:
"With this permit now in hand, we are excited to continue moving forward with our plans … we will continue to provide regular updates and information to our local community in Blythewood as our operations progress."
But concerns remain, including from Griffin, who was a council member when the Scout project was approved last year.
"When Scout came aboard, I was known as that member that was listening to the people. I have voted ‘no’ twice, and I have always said my no vote is because the people need the information, they need to know what's coming, what the hazards are and what it's doing to the environment."
Since being elected in November, and now that Scout has received their permit to move forward with construction, Griffin's goal is to work with Scout to provide the community full transparency through the construction process.
"One thing that I do want from information flow is progress updates, a monthly update so that we can provide to those concerned citizens about what's going on up there."
With the permit now approved, the request is projected to fill or impact 74 acres of wetlands, 38 acres of points and 7 miles of creek.
Mayor Griffin is asking Scout for full transparency on the construction process to ease the concern of the citizens of Blythewood.