Locals talk water at public forum

Conservation groups, politicians and concerned residents of the Upstate filled the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson University on Tuesday for an open forum hosted by the state Senate’s Agriculture and Resources Committee, and the Golden Corner was well represented.

Several speakers at the forum from Oconee and Pickens counties voiced their concerns of both water availability and quality in the state, most of whom urged the lawmakers to consider and adopt a comprehensive statewide water plan when they go back into session in January.

Mike Massey, former president of the Lake Hartwell Association, was one of many emphasizing the needed urgency to adopt a uniform statewide water policy.

“South Carolina needs a comprehensive water plan. Legislatures in neighboring states have all done that,” Massey said. “Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Alabama have recently introduced a plan to their legislators to come up with a water management office under DHEC (Department of Health and Environmental Control) or DNR (Department of Natural Resources).”

The water management offices in those states, he said, were divided into sub-offices for each basin.

“What we’d like to see is South Carolina do the same thing,” Massey said. “It would stop you legislators from having to become experts on water every time an issue comes up.”

The ongoing drought, which is categorized as extreme in Pickens and Oconee counties, was referenced several times by speakers who said the situation not only depleted water for drinking, bathing and other everyday uses, but it also deprived them of an energy resource. According to the South Carolina State Energy Office, the state averages 48 inches of precipitation a year, with additional water coming from stream flow out of North Carolina. But evaporation, stream flow into the ocean and aquifer discharge into the Atlantic, mean a drought presents a serious threat to what is the state’s number one source of energy.

Lake Keowee resident and S.C. Sierra Club’s Water Committee president Chris Christner said one aspect that must be addressed in a water plan in the legislature is taking proper conservation steps to ensure steady water levels. He demonstrated the desperate need for protecting adequate levels by stating his home on the lake had received 18 inches of rainfall so far this year, with only half an inch in September.

“That’s what I call one heck of a drought,” Christner said.

The issue that came up the most with Oconee County speakers, however, was ensuring the safety of the local waters.

“Water pollution is the most pressing environmental problem in our state,” Christner said. “Of 441 rivers tested by DHEC, 56 are contaminated by fecal chloroform at levels hazardous to our health. Our children and grandchildren are swimming in sewage.”

Ben Turetzky, executive director of the Friends of Lake Keowee Society (FOLKS), spoke emphasizing both quality and quantity of South Carolina’s waters, also urging any legislation to include conservation requirements for receiving parties downstream of South Carolina waters.

The legislation to be vetted next year is expected to deal with inter-basin release of waters within South Carolina, pollution and environmental regulations, water resources management, drought management and mitigation and overall conservation, among other items.

“That legislation will most likely be pre-filed before we convene in January,” Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, said.

Alexander, who does not sit on the committee, was part of the senatorial panel representing the host district.

“It’s been an ongoing piece of work the last two to four years really, where we’re trying to put together an opportunity so that we’re in a position to make sure we can manage that natural resource to the best of our ability,” Alexander added.

By Andrew Moore
Upstate Today
October 2, 2008

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