The Congaree River near its crest on the morning of Sept. 30th from the Gervais Street bridge.

The Midlands Rivers Coalition just wrapped up our eighth season of weekly recreational water quality monitoring at the end of September. This season saw many bacteria samples over the state standard for contact recreation, resulting in several swimming advisories. Take a look at the numbers below for a snapshot of the season: 11 sites on the Broad, Lower Saluda and Congaree Rivers were sampled every week for 22 weeks 291 total bacteria samples were collected (242 regular samples and 49 follow-up samples) 64 samples did not meet the state standard for contact recreation (49 regular samples and 15 follow-up samples) Only 78% of all samples collected this season met the standard for contact recreation (a significant decrease from last year's 92%) 10 weeks with at least one swimming advisory issued (6 of those advisories continued even after follow-up sampling ) 4+ weeks straight (7/17 - 8/15) with at least one active swimming advisory 10 of the 11 sample sites had multiple swimming advisories issued this season Only 1 site, the Saluda Shoals Canoe Landing (aka Upper Landing) had 0 advisories this season Why were there so many high bacteria results? While a few of the high samples occurred during dry weather, most followed significant rainfall events. So, it would appear that stormwater runoff was a primary driver of the water quality issues, though sewer overflows may have also contributed to some. Thank you so much to all of the coalition partners who help make this effort possible. Weekly water quality monitoring will resume in May of 2025.