State agency now tracks 2 water-borne contaminants

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) now is tracking industrial facilities that discharge so-called “forever chemicals” and other pollutants after a push from advocates to establish better water contamination regulations. Chemicals include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and 1,4-dioxane.

“Monitoring levels of PFAS in our streams, rivers, waterways and drinking water has been DHEC’s priority for years now,” the agency’s spokesman Ron Aiken told the Charleston City Paper.

But some clean water advocates have said they feel DHEC action was long overdue.

“Industrial polluters should not be allowed to poison rivers behind a veil of secrecy. We’re heartened to see DHEC start to peel back the veil,” said Carl Brzorad, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC).

The federal Clean Water Act of 1972 has legally obligated every company to report any toxic chemicals that it discharges. But in a Dec. 12 press release, the SELC said industries in the state circumvented this legislation for years, illegally dumping some contaminants like forever chemicals into S.C. waterways.

Essentially, S.C. polluters defaulted to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, Brzorad noted.

Tracking, addressing harm

Earlier this year, the City Paper published a three-part series about widespread water pollution in the Palmetto State and its ability to harm people and the surrounding ecosystem. A 2022-23 DHEC study reported hazardous levels of these chemicals in Lowcountry fish, oysters and crab tissue, and Charleston Water System recent water quality reports also found some PFAS contamination in the area’s drinking water.

Even minute traces of PFAS in drinking water and food sources could pose a long-term risk to human health, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Now with the new policy started this fall, DHEC will explicitly ensure that companies report the contaminants they’re discharging into waterways, said the SELC press release. If DHEC knows where the pollutants are coming from, SELC noted, then the agency can better address this widespread problem.

This new statewide policy went into effect about the same time that the U.S. EPA finalized a federal rule requiring companies to report all data related to PFAS treatment and disposal beginning in 2011. Aiken told the City Paper, however, that state action isn’t a direct product of the finalized EPA rule.

He also noted that there was still work to do.

“The more data we collect and understand from the possible sources will result in better-informed decisions by DHEC.” Brzorad said he hoped that required disclosure would be merely the first step, adding that “DHEC must use this information to require industry to control” what they dump into S.C. bodies of water.