Saltwater threatens S.C. water supplies

Posted: December 1, 2012 - 12:17am
By SARITA CHOUREY
December 1, 2012 12:17 AM EST

COLUMBIA — South Carolina water experts are drafting a highly technical and legally sensitive plan to prevent saltwater from contaminating Bluffton and Hilton Head-area water supplies.

The S.C. Governor’s Savannah River Committee will send its plan, proposing reductions in groundwater withdrawals, to the state of Georgia’s corresponding committee.

After the October 15 Columbia meeting of South Carolina’s panel, chairman Dean Moss said the plan would offer an “aggressive” starting point with Georgia officials over how to reduce Savannah’s groundwater pumping. The plan was expected to go to Catherine Templeton, head of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, for additional input, and be submitted to Georgia officials a few days later.

On Wednesday Ken Rentiers, deputy director for Land, Water and Conservation division of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, said South Carolina’s final proposal is still in the works. He said he did not know how soon it could be completed.

The S.C. DNR denied a Freedom of Information Act request for the document, citing an exemption for attorney work products.

Excessive groundwater withdrawals from both states is causing salt water from the Atlantic to push into the Upper Floridan Aquifer, threatening Beaufort and Jasper county water sources. Locally, that includes some 75 homes around Sawmill Creek Road and the Waddell Mariculture Center. All of Hilton Head’s wells will be tainted in 25 years, according to some estimates.

Modeling shows both states will have to significantly reduce how much water they’re pumping. Hilton Head and southern Beaufort County will also have to adjust their volumes.

Georgia faces a less urgent threat of saltwater intrusion than South Carolina and is estimated to face a far greater expense in addressing it.

“The impact on South Carolina is immediate and ongoing, and with Georgia is inevitable, at some time in the future,” reads a policy paper the Ga. Department of Natural Resources sent to South Carolina in May.

In July Templeton had raised the possibility of legal action against Georgia.

“Economically, in order for them to correct this problem, they’ve got no carrot or stick,” Templeton had said. “We can’t create a carrot, so we’ll have to make a stick.”

A Georgia official said Monday that the agency had received no formal response to the May policy paper from South Carolina.

“Litigation between the states is very undesirable,” stated Georgia’s May policy paper.

“Continued inaction is not an option.”

http://savannahnow.com/news/2012-12-01/saltwater-threatens-sc-water-supplies