Concern over spill stays strong for two Red Bank families
Two Red Bank families still are coping with a chemical spill that contaminated creeks and ponds in central Lexington County 16 years ago.
Memories of water tainted by tin-based compounds in February 2000 remain strong for the Macaulays and the Froeses.
“We look at it as a bitter memory,” Clayton Macaulay said.
The spill was part of a double punch that led state officials shortly afterward to declare Red Bank an environmental disaster.
Cleanup of a separate batch of industrial solvents polluting wells near the creeks and ponds is set to start by mid-summer, according to a plan outlined to residents Jan. 27.
Meanwhile, the Macaulays and Froeses remain cautious about playing on their ponds even though state officials gave both a clean bill of health a year after the spill, a finding confirmed by subsequent checks.
The Froeses occasionally ride on boats but otherwise stay out of the water and don’t fish on 64-acre Durham Pond on which a family compound sits.
“Do I think it’s dangerous? Probably not,” family spokesman Simon Froese said. “But it’s always in the back of your mind.”
That hesitation persists even though officials at the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control say it’s been safe to swim, wade, fish, paddle and enjoy other fun in the creeks and ponds for more than a decade.
“There is no current or potential threat to human health or the environment,” DHEC spokeswoman Cassandra Harris said.
The spill occurred when defunct chemical maker Tin Products improperly flushed 4,000 gallons of tin compounds into sewers that flowed into creeks feeding the ponds of the Macaulays and Froeses, officials said.
The spill had a major impact, even it did not last long.
It killed hundreds of fish in a 12-mile stretch of two creeks and ponds, damaged a sewer plant, forced Cayce to switch to another source of water and led to water use restrictions for 55,000 county residents – 1-of-every-4 then – that summer.
Low levels of the compounds can cause skin rashes, kidney disorders and upset stomachs in people. Their former use to scrub barnacles from boats is banned because of toxicity to fish.
The brunt of the spill was borne by Crystal Lake in the center of a 190-acre estate that Macaulay’s family has owned since 1942.
“It was fortunate our pond was there to absorb the blow,” Macaulay said of the 65-acre pond five miles upstream of where the Froeses live.
Nature cleaned up the damage in a year as sun and rain broke down the compounds, officials said.
Two former Tin Products executives went to prison and a former employee served probation. But a $2.9 million state fine against the company was never collected.
The chemicals were used to produce plastic plumbing, bottles and vinyl siding by a defunct sister company of Tin Products.
Like Froese, Macaulay is cautious about recreation on the pond even though “we’re of the mindset nature has healed it.”
It’s no longer a spot where church and civic groups gather for recreation as happened with Macaulay’s late parents. “We’ve pretty much kept people out of it for years and years,” he said.
But friends took a dip and the family held a fish fry before draining the pond last year ago for dam repairs yet to be completed.
A check then of soil around the dam showed “no detectable levels” of the chemicals, Macaulay said.
Officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared the Tin Products plant safe after a 17-month cleanup that ended in October 2003.
Work included decontaminating the 12-acre site, demolishing facilities that held stannic chloride and organotins, recycling metals and removing other waste.
The plant in an industrial area just west of Lexington still sits idle despite the cleanup. It’s part of an estate of a family in Florence whose trustee listed in county records could not be reached.
“It’s pretty much a ghost town,” said Jay Nicholson, general manager of the Joint Municipal Water and Sewer Commission that would supply water and sewer service again to any operation there.
The cleanup came after federal and state officials took over Tin Products and its sister Cardinal Companies in Columbia in summer 2001. That move occurred after officials concluded the facilities threatened to become major environmental problems.
Memories of the spill and its aftermath linger for former West Columbia Mayor Joe Owens.
Owens headed the commission that operated the sewer plant overwhelmed by the spill and spearheaded the investigation that found Tin Products at fault.
“It’s the sort of thing that should not have happened,” he said. “It’s a shame for everybody involved.”
Tim Flach: 803-771-8483
Similar pollution found in Congaree River
Low levels of the chemicals that made two Red Bank creek off-limits for a while also were found in the Congaree River south of Columbia.
A report commissioned by Columbia officials in fall 2000 found no sign of fish kills in the river popular with fishermen and paddlers and no threat to drinking water supplies upstream.
Amounts found were much less than those in Red Bank but were above levels that state officials considered safe.
The test that found the tin-based compounds came after an alert from state environmental officials.
Officials were concerned about the Cardinal Companies chemical plant at South Beltline Boulevard and Shop Road because it was owned by the same company that operated Tin Products, source of the spill in Red Bank.
The defunct Cardinal Companies, whose plant made plastic plumbing, bottles and vinyl siding, had been allowed to put treated industrial waste into city sewers that flow into the river.
Company officials said then they didn’t know if there were any leaks but promised to end the discharges. The plant closed suddenly in mid-2001.
Tim Flach: 803-771-8483
This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 9:13 PM with the headline "Concern over spill stays strong for two Red Bank families."