Nation’s highest chemical pollution in SC river sparks call for cleanup
.png "The Pocotaligo River in Sumter and Clarendon counties has some of the highest levels of toxic forever chemicals in the state. It was recently found to have high levels compared to other rivers across the country. A wastewater plant and industries are believed to the sources, a recent report said.")
An environmental group has asked the city of Sumter to clean up the flow of toxic forever chemicals from a wastewater treatment plant into an eastern South Carolina river that anglers depend on to put food on the table.
In an Aug. 25 letter to Sumter officials, the Southern Environmental Law Center says discharges from Sumter’s plant into the Pocotaligo River “pose a significant risk to human health and the environment.”
The Pocotaligo River has some of the highest forever chemical levels found anywhere in the state and in the country, according to studies by conservationists and state environmental officials.
The law center, a non-profit group that has won multiple legal victories intended to stop water pollution, wants city officials to meet with the organization’s attorneys to discuss how to resolve the problem.
If no progress is made, the law center could take legal action against Sumter. The group’s letter did not say a lawsuit would be filed, but it said not resolving the problem creates “potential liability for the city’’ from residents who use the river downstream. The letter also said Sumter’s discharges are illegal under the federal Clean Water Act.
The Pocotaligo River is popular with subsistence fishermen, who take home what they catch for meals. The river flows past Sumter and connects to the Black River, a larger stream that winds east to the coast at Georgetown.
A recent report by the national Waterkeeper Alliance said forever chemical levels in the Pocotaligo were higher than more than 30 other waterways it studied in the United States. The Sumter-Pocotaligo wastewater treatment plant likely caused much of the contamination because high levels of forever chemicals were found just below a plant discharge pipe, environmentalists say. Elevated forever chemical levels have also been found in fish from the Pocotaligo River.
Forever chemicals, formally known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, can cause an array of health problems for people exposed to them over time. Certain types of cancer, immune system deficiencies, thyroid problems and other ailments have been tied to PFAS exposure. They are called forever chemicals because they do not break down easily in the environment.
The State chronicled many of the threats from PFAS exposure in a 2023 series “Toxic Deals,’’ which looked at the effects of PFAS pollution in sewer sludge used as fertilizer in South Carolina.
But while forever chemicals can be found in sewer sludge used as crop fertilizer, the chemicals also can flow through wastewater treatment plants. Most treatment plants are designed to clean up basic pollution, such as harmful bacteria before discharging it to rivers. They rarely have systems to filter out chemicals, such as PFAS, that flow into plants from industrial users. Like many other cities, Sumter allows industrial users to release wastewater they generate into the city sewer system.
The law center’s letter says more than 20 industrial users discharge to Sumter’s sewer system. Of those, 11 are the types of industries that potentially handle forever chemicals, the letter said.
The law center’s letter said Sumter has the authority to clean up its plant and should take steps to do so.
First, the city needs to identify who is sending PFAS into the Sumter treatment plant. Industries have approval to flush treated wastewater into the Sumter system, but the city needs to know which ones are responsible for PFAS, the law center says.
Once that’s established, the city needs to exercise its authority to require companies using the sewer system to pre-treat wastewater for forever chemicals, the law center letter said.
Carl Brzorad, an attorney with the law center, said environmentalists have had difficulty reaching Sumter officials about a meeting. The Winyah Rivers Alliance, whose riverkeeper helped test the Pocotaligo River for PFAS, says it wrote Sumter officials twice “but we received no response to communications,’’ according to a text to The State newspaper.
That caused the Southern Environmental Law Center to get involved, the Winyah alliance said.
Repeated attempts by The State to reach officials with the city of Sumter were not successful.
Even though PFAS pollution that has already gotten into the river could last for years, Brzorad said the flow of contamination at least needs to stop to prevent further environmental problems.
“There’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to work together,’’ Brzorad said. “What we’re asking for doesn’t even require the city to spend any money. It’s just asking that they use their existing authority … to identify industrial users that are sending PFAS and require those industrial users to treat it or stop sending it.’’
This story has been updated with a comment from the Winyah Rivers Alliance.
This story was originally published August 28, 2025 at 11:39 AM.
