Bacteria in the Saluda: State seeks to cut sewage pollution in popular scenic river
State regulators are intensifying their effort to limit pollution in the lower Saluda River, pushing a plan to cut treated sewage discharges that affect the waterway.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control is targeting discharges that suck up oxygen that fish need to thrive in the lower Saluda, a state designated scenic river. Plentiful oxygen levels are important to the Saluda's trout fishery.
The cuts in discharges, to be discussed at a hearing Tuesday night in Columbia, would affect three small private sewage-treatment plants in the Stoop Creek-Bush River Road area, near Interstates 26 and 20, according to DHEC. The agency is proposing tighter limits on what can be discharged from the sewage plants.
DHEC's plan to make the cuts follows announcements this year that Carolina Water Service would shut off its sewer pipe to the river at Interstate 20 . Plans also are in the works to cut off another discharge from a Carolina Water Service plant at Saluda Shoals Park in Irmo.
Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler said public pressure to get rid of the discharges is being heard by regulators and utilities. While the discharges are legal if properly treated, sewage plants on the river periodically have spilled sewage or violated the limits of their permits.
"When people stand up and start saying, 'These are my rivers and we need to protect them, ' that's when we start to see real change,'' Stangler said after discussing water-quality issues Monday at a local Rotary Club in Columbia.
DHEC's Tuesday meeting will be held at the agency's offices at 2600 Bull St. at 6:30 p.m.
Mike Mayo, a Columbia businessman whose company guides tours down the Saluda, said the river needs to be cleaner because more people are using it for recreation.
Rivers now are drawing people to Columbia to float down in tubes or boats, he said. "We have a resource that, aside from USC football games .... families are coming back'' to, Mayo said.
One of the biggest recent developments is the city of Columbia's willingness to take the sewage discharge from Carolina Water Service's Friarsgate plant, which now releases treated wastewater into the river at Saluda Shoals Park. Negotiations between Carolina Water and the city are continuing, Carolina Water spokesman Robert Yanity said.
Pollution discharges to the Saluda have been an issue since at least 1990. That is when a river task force recommended all discharges from residential wastewater plants be eliminated from the lower Saluda. About a half-dozen wastewater plants still discharge into the watershed.
This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Bacteria in the Saluda: State seeks to cut sewage pollution in popular scenic river."