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2018 List of Impaired Waters
Nov 20, 2018
On November 5th, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) released its 2018 draft list of impaired waters, also called the "303(d) List." The Clean Water Act requires that every two years, states develop a list of waterbodies that fail to meet water quality standards. The list is developed primarily from DHEC’s water quality monitoring data, as well as data collected by outside organizations (including Congaree Riverkeeper's data for the first time this cycle). The list includes a location, the use that is impaired, and the cause of the impairment. The "uses" are based on the Clean Water Act’s goals of fishable, swimmable, drinkable water that is capable of supporting the survival and propagation of a balanced indigenous aquatic community. These "uses" are described as: aquatic life support, recreational use support, and fish consumption.
Impaired Waters
The 2018 303(d) list includes forty-six impairments at forty-three sites in the Lower Broad, Lower Saluda and Congaree River watersheds that make up the Congaree Riverkeeper jurisdiction (up from forty-two in 2016) .
| Use | Cause | # of Impairments |
|---|---|---|
| Aquatic Life (AL) | Macroinvertebrates (BIO) | 17 |
| Aquatic Life (AL) | Copper (CU) | 3 |
| Aquatic Life (AL) | Disolved Oxygen (DO) | 4 |
| Aquatic Life (AL) | Turbidity | 1 |
| Aquatic Life (AL) | pH | 1 |
| Aquatic Life (AL) | Lead (PB) | 1 |
| Recreational Use (REC) | E. coli | 13 |
| Fish Consumption (FISH) | Mercury (HG) | 6 |
| Total | 46 |
Six new impairments were listed this year: four for recreational use and two for aquatic life use. Gills Creek is one of three sites across the state that was newly listed this year as impaired for aquatic life support because of lead.
- CRK09 - 12 MILE CREEK - REC - ECOLI
- CRK08 - STOOPS CREEK - REC - ECOLI
- CRK06 - ROCKY BRANCH - REC - ECOLI
- C-017 - GILLS CK AT SC 48 -BLUFF ROAD - AL - PB
- C-072 - TOMS CK AT SC 48 - REC - ECOLI
- C-072 - TOMS CK AT SC 48 - AL - DO
Two sites were removed from the list this year because they attained the recreational standard for E. coli.
- B-080 - BROAD RIVER DIV CANAL AT COLA WATER PLANT - REC - ECOLI - Standard Attained
- CSB-001R - CONGAREE RVR AT BLOSSOM ST (BROAD RIVER) - REC - ECOLI - Standard Attained
TMDLs
The 303(d) list also includes a list of sites within a developed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). TMDLs are pollution reduction calculations designed to help waterbodies meet water quality standards and restore uses. The 2018 list includes: thirty-five TMDL sites. Thirty-three of the sites are listed as impaired for recreational use and two are listed for aquatic life support impaired by dissolved oxygen (Gills Creek at Bluff Rd. is listed for both).
View the TMDL list here.
| Use | Cause | # of Sites |
|---|---|---|
| Recreational Use | Fecal Coliform | 33 |
| Aquatic Life | Dissolved Oxygen | 2 |
| Total | 35 |
Waters of Concern – Lead
The 2018 report also includes a list of "waters of concern," waters that "while not currently included on the 303(d) List of Impaired Waters, . . . have the potential to be listed as impaired in 2020," according to DHEC. This year's list includes 166 sites, with sites in all eight major river basins in South Carolina, that are listed as waters of concern for aquatic life use support because of lead.
Five sites in the Congaree Riverkeeper watersheds are listed as waters of concern for aquatic life use support because of lead (PB).
- B-320 - BIG CEDAR CK AT SC 215 - AL - PB
- RS-11041 - CRIMS CREEK AT BRIDGE AT S-36-170; 2.7 MI E OF POMARIA - AL - PB
- RS-09323 - LIGHTWOOD KNOT BRANCH AT TRENHOLM RD EXTENSION - AL - PB
- RS-09312 - CEDAR CREEK AT BRIDGE ON S-40-2561 NEAR BEULAH CHURCH AND GATE TO MCINTYRE AIRBASE - AL - PB
- RS-10408 - BUCKHEAD CK AT SC-419 - AL - PB
It is important to note that these waters of concern (as well as the three sites listed as impaired for lead) are for aquatic life use, meaning that the lead levels may prevent the waters from "providing for the survival and propagation of a balanced indigenous aquatic community of fauna and flora." For pollutants, like lead and other heavy metals, there are acute and/or chronic aquatic life criterion that DHEC compares the data to. Put simply, there may be too much lead in the water for the critters that live in these impaired rivers, streams, and lakes to thrive.
Regarding the 303(d) List release, DHEC stated that it does not believe there are any public health concerns related to these lead impairments or waters of concern. That being said, DHEC must make the case to the public that there is not a public health risk and provide all the supporting data for this claim.
Both the new lead impairments and the waters of concern raise several questions, including:
- What is/are the source(s) of the lead? Will DHEC conduct a lead source study?
- Since some of the data used to list these sites goes back almost a decade, when did DHEC know that there were lead concerns, and why weren't these sites listed years earlier?
Hydologically Impaired Waters
For the first time, the 303(d) list also includes a waterbody that is impaired for hydrologic alteration (i.e. flow issues): the Upper Saluda River below the Saluda Lake Dam. SC Rivers Forever, a coalition of river conservation groups that includes Congaree Riverkeeper and others, submitted five river segments for listing as impaired due to hydrologic alteration. DHEC chose to only list one. Congaree Riverkeeper will continue to advocate for the listing of waters impaired for flow and will work to address the underlying issues that cause these flow impairments.
You can read more about the 303(d) list, TMDLs and view past lists on DHEC’s website here: https://www.scdhec.gov/south-carolina-303d-list-impaired-waters-tmdl-limits-contaminants#4
