It's All About Clean Water

Part 2 of 3 - Septic Systems

"It's all about Clean Water" is a recurring column in the Moultrie news exploring issues tied to water quality in our community. The following is the second in a three-part series on septic tank systems and how they impact our environment.

Let the Clean-up Begin: 30 years of Work for Clean Water

There is a number in the East Cooper region that may shock and surprise residents today: 480 million.

That is the amount - in gallons per year - of sewage that is no longer being flushed into the ground or our water environment in this community. It is a huge, almost unimaginable number. Four-hundred-eighty million gallons of sewage.

A visit to the South Carolina Aquarium helps put that volume in perspective. The aquarium's main, two-story tank holds about 300,000 gallons of water. It would take 1,600 such tanks to accommodate 480 million gallons. It is staggering to imagine the impact on our community by eliminating 1,600 aquarium-sized tanks of marginally treated sewage from our local environment.
That's precisely what has been done over the past three decades in East Cooper. This may surprise some residents. It may also provoke the questions: What is that worth? What is the value we get in return?

The Cost of Clean-Up

Since 1974, Mount Pleasant Waterworks has spent nearly $30 million to eliminate septic tanks and poorly operated community wastewater treatment systems that serve some 4,400 households in East Cooper.

The impact is alarming if you do the math:

• The average household generates 300 gallons of wastewater per day.
• That's 108,000 gallons of wastewater, per home, per year.
• For 4,400 households, that's 480 million gallons per year.

Nine major projects between 1974 and 2000 have been completed:

• Center St. Wastewater Plant Expansion - eliminated sewage discharges into local creeks from package treatment plants in Patriot's Point, Wakendaw, Parish Place and Snee Farm, and septic tanks in Groves and Creekside to accommodate 1,612 households.
• Sewering the Unsewered Areas Project - eliminated 1,000 septic tanks in 16 subdivisions including Bayview Acres, Hobcaw Point, Remley's Point, Cassina Heights and other areas.
• Wando River discharges - eliminated two treatment plant discharges in the upper Wando River from Commonwealth and Alston Point, providing service to 439 households.
• Hundreds of septic tanks have been eliminated in Whitehall Terrace, Six Mile, Hamlin, South Venning and James Nelson road areas.
• A major current project in the Snowden community will do away with 306 septic systems and eliminate the ground discharge of 33.5 million gallons of sewage per year. With construction and energy costs spiraling up each month, the cost of this project alone is more than $8 million.

What Clean Water is Worth

It may be impossible to precisely quantify the full volume of septic system discharges in the East Cooper region. There are simply no cumulative records available of the total number of septic tanks now in operation in our region, in all of Charleston County or in South Carolina.

We do know, however, that 4,400 homes in our community no longer discharge up to 480 million gallons of sewage into the ground, the groundwater and, ultimately, our estuaries, creeks and waterways.

In that scenario we may find the answers to some of the most important questions any community may face.

• What is clean water worth?
• What is the value we get in return?
• Is $30 million a lot or simply a drop in the bucket to improve our communities quality of life?

(Clay Duffie is General Manger of Mount Pleasant Waterworks and has more than 30 years of experience in water and wastewater management practice. He is a past President of the South Carolina Water Pollution Control Association and the SC Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and has led numerous national seminars on environmental, leadership and utility management issues.)