Protecting the Beaufort River: A prequel to a Sunday package on county waterways

In Sunday’s paper, I explore issues surrounding contaminated rivers in Beaufort and Jasper counties — what’s impaired, who’s responsible for cleaning them up and the oddities of the process. (Thirty-seven rivers and creeks in Beaufort and Jasper are on the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control’s list of impaired waterways, by the way.)

My reporting yielded lots of anecdotes about waterway pollution, not all of which will make it into Sunday’s article. Some of it was still interesting enough to include here, though, so I’m passing it along as a teaser to this weekend’s report.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control develops clean-up plans for impaired waters and then it’s up to local governments to put those plans into action.

But developing plans to improve the waterways doesn’t always mean they will work.

In 2006, DHEC worked with the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority to improve dissolved oxygen problems in the Beaufort River. By way of background, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires oxygen to remain at levels necessary for aquatic life to survive. If too depleted, the low levels can cause algae blooms and fish kills.

The Beaufort River had low levels of dissolved oxygen, which can be caused by wastewater discharges. Since the BJWSA discharges treated wastewater into the river, DHEC’s plan required the utility to more thoroughly treat the effluent. BJWSA did so with its new Port Royal Island Water Reclamation Facility that it had begun building in 2004.

Dissolved oxygen levels have indeed improved in the Beaufort River since the new facility was brought online, according to Charles Sexton, the authority’s director of planning.

However, the river is still impaired.

One possible culprit: Mother Nature. Low oxygen can be the result of wastewater discharge, but it also can result naturally whenever water temperature exceeds 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Sexton said. He suspects that is hapenning on occassion in the Beaufort River.

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