Monday, Nov. 02, 2009

Critic: DHEC must monitor stream

JALAPA - A once clear-running stream in the Sumter National Forest has turned red so many times that William Hall wonders whether it will ever be the same again.

Nearly a year ago, South Carolina's environmental protection department knew that sediment was running into the creek from a chicken farm.

But as recently as Sept. 18, soil was eroding down a hillside to the stream, according to photographs Hall's family took.

Hall, a retired schoolteacher, says the Department of Health and Environmental Control should have stopped the erosion that put silt in the creek as soon as the agency learned about it.

"DHEC has done nothing but pay lip service to this," said Hall, who is concerned about pollution from poultry farms near his Newberry County home. "I'm disappointed."

Agency officials said they've done plenty to slow soil erosion, including issuing a warning letter Sept. 29 to a chicken farm uphill from the stream.

But a visit Hall made to the national forest last week showed piles of sediment in the creek bed and evidence of erosion on part of the hillside. That's particularly frustrating, he said, because the stream is supposed be protected as part of the national forest.

Hall, 66, is one of nearly three dozen people who wrote to a state Senate committee this fall, urging legislators to overhaul DHEC. Like other agency critics, he says DHEC isn't efficient enough at protecting the environment or the people affected by its decisions. Top department officials and their supporters say DHEC is a diligent steward of the environment but is often unfairly criticized.

SLOW TO REACT?

Since the sediment runoff began near the national forest in December 2008, state and federal records show at least two other times last spring when soil was found running into the creek downhill from a new 160,000-bird chicken farm off U.S. 76.

Photographs Hall's family took in August and September also show muddy water washing down several sections of the national forest creek. In one Sept. 18 photo, a rivulet of muddy water flowed down the hill between the poultry houses and the stream.

"I have not seen anything, not even a water bug, floating around in this water," Hall said during his Oct. 27 return visit to the national forest. "The creek is just a dead zone with all that silt and junk that is washing from up there. It's just a drainage ditch now."

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that up to a mile of Long Branch, a tributary that eventually flows to the Enoree River, has been filled with 300 cubic yards of sediment. That can make it difficult for fish or aquatic life to survive. Later this year, the agency will release a report on what kind of shape the stream is in.

Forest service officials say they're working with DHEC and the landowner to resolve the problem. But U.S. Forest Service records obtained by The State show that federal officials have expressed frustration with DHEC's effort to stop the mud flow.

"We were not encouraged that anything could or would be done by the state," Forest Service hydrologist William Hansen wrote in a March 31 e-mail that recounts a meeting with DHEC staffers about the creek pollution.

DHEC said in an e-mail last week that sediment flowing into the national forest creek has slowed down and will continue to do so as the chicken farm stabilizes from last year's construction.

Agency officials also note that they asked G&M Poultry last spring to fix problems regulators found during a Feb. 26 site visit. Later visits by agency staff members indicated "corrective action had been initiated" by G&M Farms, agency spokesman Adam Myrick said in an e-mail.

In an Oct. 12 letter to DHEC, G&M Poultry co-owner Michael E. Wise said he began planting grass near the poultry barns last April and on the slopes below, but that last summer's heat hampered those efforts.

Since late August, the farm has replanted grass, installed matting to control erosion and put in concrete barriers. Such barriers are intended to block mud from flowing into the creek. In addition, Wise has contacted the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service to help further control erosion.

The letter from Wise stated that "we want to be good neighbors" with the U.S. Forest Service.

A man answering the telephone at the home of the chicken farm operator spoke briefly with The State.

"I think the Forest Service blew this out of proportion," he said. "I can't help what rainfall we've gotten in the last six to eight months. Things happen. I've got grass established now. To me it's not an issue anymore."

PROBLEMS REMAIN

Despite those efforts, DHEC said Friday that the storm water problems weren't all resolved. That caused the agency to issue a warning letter Sept. 29 to G&M Poultry, the agency's e-mail said.

DHEC's warning notice said the farm was not in compliance with parts of the state's sediment and erosion control rules. It noted a lack of vegetation on a hill between the chicken houses and the creek as one problem. Vegetation helps trap mud before it reaches a stream.

DHEC also said the farm failed to get a storm water permit before building. The farm was built on a filled-in pond, DHEC records show. Records show the farm received an agricultural permit Dec. 4, 2008. Less than two weeks ago, DHEC approved a plan on how to control storm water pollution, agency files show.

Agency records also show that a DHEC inspector urged against fining the farm over the permit issue. The inspector said G&M was wrongly told by a storm water official that it didn't need a permit, but the farm had acted in good faith and been cooperative.

"I've established a trusting relationship with builders, developers, contractors, etc.," DHEC storm water inspector Russell Wilson wrote in a Feb. 4 internal e-mail.

"How do you think it's going to make me look and how much do you suppose it will undermine my credibility if I now take this to enforcement? I am a very successful inspector because of the relationship of trust I've established."

Hall sees things differently. If DHEC had been more aggressive, it may have protected the creek for all these months, he said.

He wonders why DHEC didn't make sure the farm had a storm water permit before it allowed the chicken farm to be built and operate. He also wonders why DHEC never issued a fine to show it was serious about the problem.

"When the thing was built, why wasn't something done to prevent to this from ever happening?" he asked. "We wouldn't be at this point today if DHEC had done its job."

Hall makes no apologies for his interest in the case. He's opposing another chicken farm that would be near his house. Like the farm near the Sumter National Forest, the one just down the road from his house would also be uphill from a Piedmont stream. A visit to that stream last week showed flowing water and almost no mud clogging the bed.

Hall figures if one farm can send mud into a stream, another could do the same. The U.S. Forest Service expressed similar concerns last spring, when it briefly opposed a DHEC permit for the farm near Hall's house in rural Newberry County.

"I don't like to see our creeks raped," Hall said.

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