Rusting equipment, insect nest found during inspection of Eastover’s drinking water system
State health officials found rusting equipment, holes in a well, exposed wires on the ground, and an insect nest during a 2022 inspection of Eastover’s drinking water system, a small operation with a history of problems.
Inspectors also discovered that the town was not incorporating chlorine — the key way to kill potentially harmful bacteria — into a part of the system that Eastover had reconfigured. The 2022 inspection rated Eastover’s drinking water system unsatisfactory.
It was a sobering visit for state inspectors who have ordered Eastover to fix problems in the water system that serves about 700 people southeast of Columbia. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control has told the town to resolve those and other system issues or face a $7,000 state fine. The state’s enforcement order against Eastover, which noted multiple violations of state drinking water laws, was released this week.
In an email Wednesday, a DHEC spokeswoman said the agency is waiting for Eastover to resolve all the problems it found last year.
“We will be satisfied once the system has regained compliance with state regulations by meeting the stipulations outlined’’ in the agency’s recent enforcement order against Eastover, DHEC spokeswoman Laura Renwick said in an email.
Eastover Mayor Phillip Gunter said the town is working on it, but resolving all the issues is taking time and money.
“We’ve got a lot of things we need to fix,’’ Gunter said
He and Renwick said the water is safe to drink, despite the troubles.
But Gunter said Eastover needs help. The town has applied for some $5 million in grant money from the state Rural Infrastructure Authority, Gunter said. Recent federal decisions to spend billions of dollars for water system improvements across the country have Gunter hopeful Eastover will receive assistance.
“Being a small town, you don’t have the capacity and the resources,” he said. ”You deal with not having grant writers. You don’t have a whole lot of support. You try to reach out, but it’s hit or miss.’’
In a later email Wednesday evening, DHEC said Eastover already has received some funding to, among other things, pressure wash and repaint a storage tank, wash out the interior and disinfect the tank. That work was completed last month, the agency said.
The department’s review in Eastover outlined some of the latest troubles affecting small water systems across South Carolina. Many small water systems have had trouble for years complying with federal and state safe drinking water laws, in part because of a lack of money and expertise to run the systems, The State reported in 2019.
Eastover, located off U.S. 378 in southeastern Richland County, has been sanctioned at least three other times since 2010 for drinking water system violations, DHEC records show. Overall, DHEC has taken a total of six enforcement actions against Eastover since 1996, the agency said in Wednesday night’s email to The State newspaper.
The town’s most recent water system deficiencies surfaced last August during a DHEC inspection. The agency found more than 40 problems that led to the unsatisfactory rating of the Eastover water system.
Those problems included:
▪ Exposed wires on the ground near one of the town’s two wells
▪ A buildup of lime in multiple places
▪ A wasp nest on a water plant building
▪ Holes in seals that are supposed to prevent contamination from leaking into wells
▪ Chlorine not being used on a temporary tank
▪ A tank at one well that did not have a lid to prevent contamination
▪ Paint being stored with water treatment chemicals
▪ A rusted tank at one well
▪ Overgrown vegetation around a well
Eastover had failed to resolve deficiencies DHEC noted in a tank inspection report from 2018.
This story has been updated with additional information from DHEC
This story was originally published March 8, 2023 at 3:42 PM.
