A ‘grave threat’ to this SC river has finally been overcome. Here’s how, what to know
Just five miles downstream from Reedy River Falls and the surrounding renewed city of Greenville is the 640-acre Conestee Nature Preserve, another piece of Greenville County with its own comeback story.
“In the not too distant past, the idea that the Conestee property could be a community asset would have been unimaginable,” the organization says on its website.
It was a place where the chemicals of all the upriver commerce that helped Greenville become the textile capital of the world for generations went to rest, held in by a 133-year-old stone masonry dam that leaked.
The risk is no more.
The Lake Conestee Dam Restoration Project, in conjunction with a number of state and local organizations, oversaw construction of a $44 million dam that was recently completed.
The pollution remains in the lake, buried under some 3.25 million cubic yards of sediment. Scientists say it can remain there undisturbed now that a dam break is no longer a concern. Because of sediment the reservoir had shrunk from 135 acres to 13.
The Reedy River, which begins near Travelers Rest, flows into Lake Greenwood.
Conservationist Kelly Lowry, who initiated the restoration project, called the old dam a “grave threat.” It was one of a few of its kind regulated by the S.C. Department of Environmental Services.
“Dam failure and the tragedy that would have resulted is no longer in the cards,” he said in a statement announcing the dam completion. “I am humbled by the overwhelming support from the local community and all our partners throughout the region and the state, public and private collaboration. We could not have done it without everyone pulling together.”
The state funded $36 million and $8 million came from stakeholder groups.
The new dam is 60 feet downstream from the old one, which is immersed under the reservoir.
Founded about 20 years ago, Conestee Nature Preserve has 13 miles of trails and boardwalks and 11 wildlife observation decks and is located in the Greenville city limits.
The old dam was built in 1892 to provide power to Conestee Mill. Within 30 years, the river was so polluted, the water smelled and the fish died. Despite a successful lawsuit against the city of Greenville, Conestee Mill did not recover from the Depression.
Today, visitors can see some of the 226 identified species of birds that have been identified on the property, which the nature preserve says is more than any other location in Greenville County.
There are also beaver, river otter, deer, raccoon, fox, salamanders, frogs, and snakes. Opposums, rabbits, foxes, coyotes and of course the ever present squirrel have also been sited.