A 2nd lawsuit has challenged a $75 million payment to 2 area law firms.
Former SC Common Cause head John Crangle and the SC Public Interest Foundation are suing to stop Attorney General Alan Wilson’s proposed $75 million payment to the Columbia law firms.
The money was for work they did to force federal officials to pay $600 million to the State of South Carolina.
“Our only response is this lawsuit has no merit,” said Robert Kittle, a spokesman for Wilson.
Crangle, a lawyer and longtime critic of state government corruption, said the firms' work doesn't justify $75 million in a lawsuit against the US Department of Energy, The State newspaper reported.
Earlier in September, western SC counties sued, saying the $600 million should go to them, especially Barnwell and Allendale, because they suffer the “stigma” of having the plutonium. 
The counties allege they have also lost prospective businesses because few want to come to a place with such a potential hazard.
The lawsuit alleges the $600 million settlement was a political deal arranged for the law firms Willoughby & Hoefer and Davidson Wren & DeMasters of Columbia.
Attorneys Jim Carpenter, Jim Griffin and Badge Humphries sought an injunction to halt any payment until the courts make a final decision on the matter.
A judge has not been appointed to hear the lawsuit filed Friday in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas.
The Department of Energy settled a 20-year dispute over tons of deadly plutonium left at the Savannah River Site 45 minutes from Lexington County.
Many SRS employees commute there from Lexington County daily.
The plutonium was to be converted into Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) for peaceful nuclear uses.
The project was shut down after long delays and billions in cost overruns.
The lawsuit contends:
• All $600 million must be deposited in the General Fund and “only the Legislature controls its appropriation.” 
• The agreement "does not allocate any portion of the $600 million to attorneys’ fees.” 
• The lawyers “engaged in no discovery, no interrogatories, no depositions, no experts, no document requests. 
• "Instead, they drafted pleadings and wrote briefs to prove the Department of Energy is required to pay South Carolina penalties from money that has “been appropriated by Congress.” 
• “Wilson had no need to hire private counsel to address a relatively straight forward issue that government leaders ultimately negotiated.” 
The money is to come from a special US Department of Justice pool of fines. Attorney General William Barr signed off on the payment, The State reported.
The lawsuit said the settlement did not need the lawyers.
• The “agreement was a political resolution" brokered by Gov. Henry McMaster and Sen. Lindsey Graham.
• Under a fee agreement the lawyers made with Wilson, the maximum amount they may be entitled to is $50.2 million, not $75 million. 
• As an example of the alleged questionable nature of Wilson’s agreement with the lawyers, Willoughby & Hoefer is to get half a percent of $600 million, or $3 million just for writing a 46-page petition and reply.
• That means Wilson “intends to pay Willoughby & Hoefer over $65,000 per page for these filings."
Gov. McMaster wrote Wilson objecting to the $75 million fee as too high. 
He said this lets the federal government leave plutonium at the Savannah River Site years longer than needed.