Plant operational after dumping millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into river

A wastewater treatment plant in Conway likely dumped millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Waccamaw River due to flooding from Hurricane Florence.

Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority notified the state Department of Health and Environmental Control Wednesday that its plant had stopped working.

Authority spokeswoman Christy Everett told The Sun News Thursday morning that the plant was back operational after less than 24 hours of untreated wastewater flowing into a tributary that feeds into the river.

Everett said GSWSA officials are closely monitoring the plant, located at 2915 New Road near the corner of Creel Street across Lake Busbee from U.S. 501, and don’t anticipate any additional concerns.

She didn’t know how much untreated wastewater passed the plant during the outage, but noted up to 10 million gallons per day have flowed through since flooding began.

The plant usually treats about 3 million gallons of wastewater every day, Everett added.

All of GSWSA’s water distribution systems are safe, Everett said, and no customers should worry about their drinking water.

DHEC has advised citizens to avoid contact with water around and downstream of the Conway facility as well as all floodwaters due to potential health and safety concerns, including infectious diseases, chemical hazards and sharp objects.

Susan Libes, director of the environmental quality lab at Coastal Carolina, said the untreated sewage that flowed into the Waccamaw River contained potential pathogens and organic matter that will further add to low oxygen levels.

Oxygen levels in the river are nearly zero in places where she’s tested, Libes said, and that can contribute to fish kills, which have already been seen as water recedes in certain places, leaving hundreds of dead fish in the streets.

Chester Sanbury, a former assistant chief for DHEC’s Bureau of Water, said bacteria carried by wastewater into a river generally die off within two weeks, but the flooding could alter that timeline.

Libes said it’s impossible to predict any long-term impacts because the flooding is unprecedented. She noted similar oxygen levels following Hurricane Bonnie in 1998, but the water never rose to the levels it’s at currently.

She speculated that algal blooms, which can be toxic, could develop in downstream estuaries, but modeling for this amount of water has never been done, so there’s no way to know where that might occur.

David Weissman: @WeissmanMBO; 843-626-0305

This story was originally published September 27, 2018 at 10:42 AM.