‘Third parties’ to help pay huge environmental fine at Scout Motors project site
Richland County says it is being reimbursed in full by the state and “various third parties’’ for a $1 million fine that South Carolina regulators imposed on the county over environmental violations at the Scout electric vehicle construction site.
In an email Friday night to The State newspaper, county spokeswoman Keywa Henderson said Richland paid the $1 million fine, as required by the S.C. Department of Environmental Services.
But Henderson said Richland County taxpayers won’t wind up paying anything after reimbursements have come in.
The state of South Carolina will reimburse the county $500,000 of the $1 million fine and third parties will pay the rest, according to Henderson’s email, sent at 6:55 p.m. Friday. Her email did not identify the third parties, but it indicated a contractor was helping out.
“Richland County is proud of the collaborative work undertaken with the state, with Scout Motors, and with our independent third-party engineering firm to bring this matter to a successful conclusion,’’ the email said. Last year, the county said who ultimately would pay the fine was an unresolved legal matter.
To meet the fine’s requirements, “the county advanced the necessary funds with the expectation of reimbursement,’’ the email said. “One-half of that reimbursement has been or will be received from the state of South Carolina, and the balance will be received from various third parties.’’
The state will reimburse $500,000 to the county under a law that says 50 percent of the money collected from environmental fines be returned to the county where the violations occurred, the Department of Environmental Services says.
Richland County Councilman Don Weaver said Saturday he’s glad county taxpayers won’t have to pay the fine because the county had nothing to do with environmental violations at the site. But Weaver said he’d like to know which third parties are funding half of the fine.
“I still think at the end of the day, the contractor will be held responsible,’’ Weaver said. “We didn’t cause the issue. The state didn’t cause it.’’
The Scout project property is being developed by a team of contractors and subcontractors, but no one has claimed responsibility for the violations.
Scout was named in the Department of Environmental Services’ initial violation notice in 2024 and later in a May 2025 enforcement order that carried the hefty penalty. The county and Scout did not contest the order but did also not admit responsibility.
The Department of Environmental Services said it required the county to make the fine payment because Richland held environmental permits for the work. The fine is one of the largest in state history for stormwater and sediment violations. Scout said deficiencies at the site involved the county. The county could have been fined $3 million, but it has worked with the state to correct problems on the site, officials said.
At issue is land-clearing that occurred on the more than 1,600-acre Scout Motors project site at Blythewood in northern Richland County.
Sediment-contaminated stormwater has repeatedly rushed off the property and onto surrounding land and waterways. Beasley Creek, a major stream running off the Scout site, remained cloudy months after the clearing work began in 2023. As recently as May and June 2025, brown silty water flowed down the creek bed, The State newspaper found.
In 2023, work on the project was halted in an effort to resolve problems after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources raised concerns about the pace at which the work was occurring.
The EPA said it found wetlands violations as a result of the work, while the DNR said the land-clearing was happening so fast it had not had time to assess natural features that were on the property. The DNR, at the time, urged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers not to approve a necessary wetlands permit until the questions were resolved. The permit was ultimately issued.
Major companies working on the Scout project include Landmark Construction and Thomas and Hutton.
Landmark, of Charleston, is a well-known firm that has done work on multiple large projects in South Carolina, including Volvo and Mercedes Benz. The company has been in business for six decades.
Thomas and Hutton, a regional company with offices in Columbia, is an engineering firm that also has been in business for decades, working on an array of big projects. In addition to Scout, it also provided services for the Volvo plant.
Efforts to reach officials with Landmark and Thomas and Hutton to see if they helped Richland County with the fine payments were not successful Saturday.
In a written response to questions from The State last year, Thomas and Hutton said it was not named in the enforcement order issued by the Department of Environmental Services. But the statement said the company did not agree with some charges made by state regulators about violations on the property. The company said work on the site occurred during a rainy period that included a tropical storm, making it a challenge to contain runoff from the site.
“We respectfully disagreed with certain findings because they did not fully account for site conditions, our mitigation efforts or historical precedents,’’ the Thomas and Hutton statement said. “Nevertheless, we continue to meet our obligations under our contract and support the county’s compliance efforts.’’
The Scout project is a potentially transformative economic development effort that is expected to bring up to 4,000 jobs to South Carolina. The $2 billion project is considered a major industrial recruitment win for South Carolina, which was chosen by Scout over venues in other states. South Carolina pledged to provide the company $1.3 billion to locate here.
Work on the future electric vehicle plant began in 2023 and is still ongoing. Many people support the project for the jobs and because Scout will produce electric cars that run cleanly and reduce dependence on gasoline.
Despite its virtues, the project has had troubles, primarily with land clearing efforts, and state officials say it needs another $150 million to deal with an array of issues, including wetlands mitigation that was required by the federal government. The request for extra money has caused a disagreement in the state Legislature.
Richland County, which had a major role in recruiting Scout, says that, despite the violations, it’s glad Scout has come to South Carolina.
“We remain committed to supporting Scout Motors, the largest economic development investment in our county’s history, and to upholding the highest standards of environmental compliance as the project moves forward,’’ the county’s Friday night email said.
This story has been updated to explain why the state will reimburse Richland County for half of the fine amount.
This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 2:22 PM with the headline "‘Third parties’ to help pay huge environmental fine at Scout Motors project site."
