Will Camden’s $12.5M water system upgrades be enough to keep up with growth?

As Camden tries to get its arms around growth in the area, its water system is getting a $12.5 million upgrade. Officials in the city northeast of Columbia hope the overhaul will help keep up with increasing demand.

Construction has already started on a booster pump station and the replacement of 17,000 feet of water mains, and a new 500,000 gallon water tower is in the pre-construction phase. All three of these projects are expected to finish by June 2026.

Like other Midlands utilities, Camden’s water system must adapt to keep up with growth. The city-owned-and-operated system has between 9,000 and 10,000 customers and extends beyond the city limits, said Jack Thornsberry, Camden’s director of public utilities.

The population within the city limits and within the service area beyond it is growing, Mayor Vincent Sheheen told The State. Camden’s population grew by almost 14% between 2010 and 2020, going from just under 7,000 to just under 8,000, according to U.S. Census data. The latest census estimates have Camden’s population exceeding 8,400.

After a spike in development, Camden’s city council passed a moratorium in 2024, pausing the approval of major subdivisions and multi-family developments. This March, the council extended the pause until Sept. 30. According to Camden’s website, the moratorium is meant to give the city time to consider the impact of future development on infrastructure, services and the environment.

While the city will always have water mains and sewer lines to replace, the upgrades to Camden’s water storage and capacity will be sufficient for the “foreseeable future,” Sheheen said.

What’s being done?

The new booster pump station will help distribute water more efficiently to a growing part of town, Thornsberry said. Camden’s water plant is north of the city and close to Lake Wateree, but the southern end of town along Black River Road is growingly quickly.

That’s why the pump station is being built in the south. If the city needs to increase the water pressure in the southern area to meet demands, it would no longer need to pump water through the entire city to do so, Thornsberry said.

The water main upgrades will not only replace aging infrastructure. The project will also decrease the traffic impact of future repairs, Thornsberry said. Some water mains currently sit under the middle of West Dekalb Street, a busy corridor through the center of town. The new water mains are being put farther to the side of the street, so that later fixes would block less of the road.

The work on the booster pump and water mains has been ongoing for about two and a half months, the utilities director said. He expects construction on the water tower to begin in one or two months. The city has already selected a contractor and is working to secure the necessary land for the project.

The water tower, the first built in Camden in over 20 years, will boost the system’s capacity and help the city keep up with a growing population’s demand for water, Thornsberry said.

“We’re trying to maintain the good service that we have and then be prepared for the growth that we’re seeing,” said Mayor Sheheen.

Planning for the future

The water system upgrades are meant to be forward-looking and prepare the city for the future, the mayor added. Besides seeing some workers on the road, an average Camden resident may not notice the upgrades at all.

“Our goal is that they shouldn’t notice anything, because we are trying to stay ahead of the curve,” Sheheen said. “And if we weren’t, things they would notice would be lack of water pressure, lines breaking, disruption in their system.”

As for keeping ahead of the curve, the timing of the funding for the work worked out in Camden’s favor, Thornsberry said.

The project is mostly funded by a grant from the South Carolina Infrastructure Investment Program (SCIIP), a state grant which uses federal COVID relief money allocated as part of the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act.

Between 2022 and 2023, South Carolina legislators sent over $1.4 billion to the S.C. Rural Infrastructure Authority to spend on water and sewer projects. The vast majority of that money, $1.369 billion in total, turned into SCIIP awards like the one Camden received.

Camden got $10 million in SCIIP money for the water upgrades, with the city kicking in just over $2.5 million for the project.

Both Sheheen and Thornsberry started their current roles after the project was underway. But Sheheen, a former state senator, was involved with talks about funding for different Camden projects near the end of his senate term, he said.

According to Sheheen, Camden has had a good relationship with the Rural Infrastructure Authority since the agency was established in 2012.

“We’ve always delivered on what our applications and our promises have been, and so I think they do view our applications in a favorable light,” Sheheen said.