Blue Granite Water fined $52,000 for sewage leak in Saluda River tributary
The Blue Granite Water Co., a private utility with a history of violating South Carolina pollution laws, has been fined more than $52,000 by state regulators for allowing raw sewage to flow out of an aging wastewater treatment system to a creek northwest of Columbia last year.
State regulators say they found untreated wastewater draining from a manhole in the Friarsgate sewage treatment system last winter, and they saw sludge and rainwater discharging from a basin to a tributary of the Saluda River, according to enforcement documents released this week.
The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control ordered the company to pay the $52,562 fine and submit a detailed plan to prevent unauthorized pollution discharges from other plants like the one at Friarsgate.
The Friarsgate plant that sparked DHEC’s fine has had a recent history of troubles, including a 2016 plant malfunction that allowed poorly treated wastewater to foul the Saluda River near Saluda Shoals Park. Levels of bacteria soared as a result of the sewage release during a summer weekend popular with kayakers, fishermen and swimmers. In 2017, DHEC fined Blue Granite nearly $80,000 over the release.
Since that time, the company has closed the Friarsgate facility and hooked up with the city of Columbia’s much larger sewage treatment system.
Sewage in the Saluda has been a point of concern for decades as river advocates have pushed to get all sewer discharges out of the water.
With whitewater rapids and an active trout fishery, the lower Saluda is considered by many to be the jewel of Columbia’s three primary rivers. It is a state-designated scenic river that runs from the Lake Murray dam to below Riverbanks Zoo, where it joins the Broad River to form the Congaree.
Blue Granite’s latest scrap with DHEC is tied to efforts to close the Friarsgate plant. A container used to store sewage sludge while the Friarsgate plant was being closed blew out last winter, sparking DHEC’s most recent fine, the Congaree Riverkeeper organization said.
According to the enforcement order released this week, DHEC staff saw wastewater from a manhole draining into Rawls Creek, a tributary of the Saluda, on Dec. 13, 2019. That same day, agency staff members found that a partially dismantled treatment system basin had been flooded by heavy rains, causing sludge to flow into Rawls Creek, the order said.
Three months before the December spill, DHEC had issued an enforcement order against Blue Granite for failing to properly dispose of sewage sludge at Friarsgate. The sludge was supposed to go to a landfill and work was to begin Dec. 9, the order said. Four days later, the sludge was found spilling into Rawls Creek, records show.
DHEC said the company has paid the $52,000 fine.
The state-required plan to make sure future spills don’t occur applies to five other plants that are being closed, including the Watergate sewage treatment plant that also discharges to the Saluda River basin near Lexington, DHEC said in an email Wednesday.
Blue Granite spokesman Dave Wilson said the company is committed to making improvements.
Last year’s spills stem “from a massive rain that took place in December during the decommissioning of the Friarsgate ..... facility,’’ Wilson said in an email. “That decommissioning and interconnection with the City of Columbia are part of Blue Granite Water’s commitment to bringing waste water system improvements to the Irmo community.”
The spill in December occurred only on the day DHEC staff saw it, not over multiple days, an agency spokeswoman said.
Blue Granite’s predecessor company, Carolina Water Service, and sister companies were hit with 55 state enforcement orders during a 20-year period beginning in the 1990s, The State newspaper reported in a 2013 series on companies that repeatedly violate state pollution laws.
At the time, the number of orders exceeded the number against any other company or government in the state. All told, the 55 enforcement orders resulted in more than $645,000 in fines against Carolina Water Service, Utilities Inc. and related companies, the newspaper reported.
Blue Granite, which recently imposed a substantial rate increase on many of its water and sewer customers, says it is trying to improve service but the effort to upgrade water and sewer facilities takes time and money. The company, part of a national corporation, provides drinking water and sewer service to multiple communities in South Carolina, many in the Columbia, Anderson and Rock Hill areas.
Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler, whose organization monitors pollution in both the Congaree and Saluda basins, said the recent fine shows why it’s important “to keep an eye on private wastewater facilities that continue to have problems, especially in the lower Saluda River watershed.’’
DHEC’s announcement of its fine against Blue Granite follows a recent large spill at a different company’s sewage plant on Stoop Creek, also northwest of Columbia near the Saluda River.
The Palmetto Wastewater Reclamation release, caused by weekend flooding that knocked the plant out of service, has prompted advisories against swimming or kayaking in the lower Saluda below Interstate 20 and Interstate 26. The Stoop Creek sewage discharge resulted from heavy rains over the weekend. For days, raw and partially treated sewage drained from the plant into Stoop Creek, a tributary of the lower Saluda.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 3:05 PM.
