- BIG STORY: State water plan shows rising strain on S.C. rivers
- MORE NEWS: S.C. federal judge dismisses Comey, James cases
- LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: Leftover turkey
- BRACK: First Thanksgiving in Carolina colony was quite different
- MYSTERY PHOTO: Orange flowers
- FEEDBACK: Not a fan
State water plan shows rising strain on S.C. rivers
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | South Carolina’s rivers and streams are under increasing strain due to a torrent of new residents, industries and megafarms that threaten their long-term sustainability.
Environmental advocates tell Statehouse Report that’s the key takeaway from a new draft water plan, released Nov. 17 by the S.C. Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) that state officials say will guide water management over the next several decades.
Weighing in at nearly 200 pages, the data-heavy report was developed by WaterSC, an executive working group established by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster in 2024 and tasked with updating the state’s now-outdated 2004 water plan. It includes input from S.C.’s eight major river councils and various state agencies.
SCDES Director Myra Reece, who chairs WaterSC, sounded a cautiously positive note in a news release accompanying the report, praising the governor’s “foresight” in seeking a sustainable path forward.
“While our state’s groundwater and surface water resources are abundant, it’s a critical time to update the water plan and ensure South Carolina is prepared for the responsible management and protection of our water resources – especially as the state experiences unprecedented economic growth and prosperity,” Reece said.
Looming issues
But while advocates praise the plan’s detailed modeling and emphasis on improved data collection, they say it downplays the challenges posed by large-scale withdrawals and a regulatory system that does little to manage some of the state’s biggest drawdowns.
As a result, they note, several rivers are what the report describes as “overallocated” — meaning that, on paper at least, authorized users have a legal right to take more water than the river contains during certain times of the year. According to the report, potentially overallocated basins include portions of the Edisto, Saluda and Pee Dee Rivers.
Riverkeeper Bill Stangler, whose Midlands coverage area includes the Broad, Lower Saluda and Congaree rivers, cheered “the wealth of information and data” in the plan, as well as its strong recommendations for comprehensive long-term planning and better coordination with neighboring states.
But at the same time, he warned that some critical issues were left unaddressed.
“The biggest concern I have is what didn’t make it into the plan,” he said. “In particular, necessary fixes to the flawed 2010 Surface Water Act that just isn’t protective enough of rivers.”
To illustrate his concerns, Stangler points to provisions in the law that grandfathered in existing withdrawal agreements and exempted agricultural users from the permitting requirements it imposed on new industrial and municipal operators.
As a result, he said, 97% of all withdrawals of 3 million gallons or more per month are effectively beyond the reach of state regulators, absent an emergency declaration by the governor.
“We currently have a system that allows rivers to be run dry with very little recourse under the law,” he said. “And while that was discussed, it didn’t make it into the final plan due to pushback from industry groups.”
More safeguards needed, advocates say
Other areas that still need to be addressed in the planning process, Stangler said, include water quality as opposed to simple quantity, and the growing demands of data centers, whose large drawdowns sometimes hide in county and municipal water withdrawals.
“We need to put some safeguards around these big industrial users so we’re not caught after the fact wondering where all our water went,” he said.
The withdrawal concerns Stangler described are currently at issue in a 2024 lawsuit filed by the Southern Environmental Law Center, which argues that SCDES’s regulations ignore the most basic requirement of the 2010 Act.
“The statute clearly says that everyone, including agriculture, has to leave enough water in the river to preserve the integrity of the river,” said SELC staff attorney Carl Brzorad.
But the current regulation, which allows for the year-round withdrawal of up to 80% of a river’s mean daily flow, is in “direct violation” of that requirement, he said.
“Because of seasonal variations in river flow,” he said, “that standard will result in the complete and total dewatering of the river for over half the year.”
He added: “The agency’s own calculations say that. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that. The SC Department of Natural Resources has said that. It’s just an undisputed statement of fact.”
In a Nov. 26 email, SCDES declined an opportunity to respond to the lawsuit or its claims, noting that “the agency doesn’t comment on pending or active litigation.”
As for the plan, Brzorad focused on the overallocation problem, calling it “true and damning.”
“That needs to be the centerpiece of a report instead of a footnote,” he said. “There should be universal consensus on this being a bad thing, because everyone needs water and rivers.”
The public comment period on the water plan runs through Dec. 7. Comments can be submitted by email at WaterSC@des.sc.gov or through an online form at des.sc.gov.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
S.C. federal judge dismisses Comey, James cases
Staff reports | Senior U.S. District Judge Cameron McGowan Currie, a Florence native who has been on the bench since 1994, tossed out separate criminal charges Monday against former F.B.I. Director James B. Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In the case, which has national implications, the judge ruled a loyalist federal prosecutor installed by President Trump to bring the cases was put into her job unlawfully. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters on Monday that the Justice Department will appeal.
The decisions, filed Nov. 24, reaffirmed arguments made by attorneys for Comey and James that Trump’s prosecutor, former White House aide and interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia, was illegally appointed to try the case in the first place. Halligan was appointed by Trump in an interim capacity, replacing his previous pick, who was also serving in a temporary role. Currie ruled that it was unlawful to appoint two interim prosecutors in succession.
Currie also wrote that if she did not dismiss the indictments, the consequences to the criminal justice system would be enormous.
“It would mean the government could send any private citizen off the street — attorney or not — into the grand jury room to secure an indictment so long as the attorney general gives her approval after the fact,” she wrote. “That cannot be the law.”
The dismissal of charges without prejudice means the government could also try to refile them with another grand jury.
In other recent news
S.C. lawmakers consider regulating hemp-derived products. The proposed legislation outlines a new regulatory framework for products containing THC — the psychoactive compound in cannabis — and would raise the legal purchase age from 18 to 21.
Audit faults SLED for slow rape kit progress, but agency leaders say they never had the power to fix it. An April legislative audit criticized the State Law Enforcement Division for not fixing the state’s backlog in rape kit testing as directed by lawmakers in 2020, but SLED maintains it was never given the resources to address the problem.
McMaster touts low unemployment insurance costs for S.C. businesses. Gov. Henry McMaster is touting low 2026 unemployment insurance rates as evidence that the state’s system works better than most, but critics say it’s just the result of lower-than-average benefits.
How to stay safe during the holidays on S.C.’s tough roads. The Thanksgiving season kicks off some of the busiest travel days of the year across the Palmetto State as families gather to celebrate together. Ahead of the jam-packed roads, several organizations offer reminders and safety tips to make your travels safer and easier.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com
Leftover
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he’s got a political – and holiday – theme.
- Love this week’s cartoon or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
First Thanksgiving in Carolina colony was quite different
EDITOR’S NOTE: We’re taking off this week, but offer a hearty column from 2019 as you give thanks this week.
By Andy Brack | The first Thanksgiving in South Carolina probably was in French. Or Spanish.
More than 100 years before the English settled in Charleston in 1670, the French built a small wooden fort on what is now Parris Island. Known as Charlesfort in honor of the French king, it was abandoned after a couple of years.
Then in 1566, the Spanish established Santa Elena in the same area as the northernmost settlement of its province of La Florida. For much of its first 10 years, Santa Elena was the capital of La Florida.
Both footholds in what is now South Carolina shared two things: the lack of a steady supply of food and tough living conditions. But French and Spanish cultures, like those of other European nations who sent explorers to the New World, had religious traditions of giving thanks, as outlined by Charleston historian Nic Butler: “It was common for the ‘commander-in-chief’ to issue a proclamation, at least once a year, setting aside a specific ‘holyday’ or ‘holiday’ for quiet reflection. That is to say, a day for people to refrain from all work and to focus their thoughts and prayers on a specific topic. Such proclamations might occur at any point during the calendar year, and might occur more than once a year, depending on what was happening in the local community.”
What did they eat? Your guess is as good as mine, but they had access to wild game, including turkeys, as well as maize and marshes full of seafood. Maybe they had turkey and an early concoction of the state dish, shrimp and grits!
So while most students learn the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts in 1621, it’s more likely they merely followed a tradition of giving thanks that had been around for a long time.
Butler writes the earliest recorded observance of a public thanksgiving in the English colony of South Carolina was in October 1706 after a militia beat Spanish and French troops from St. Augustine in Florida. He wrote:
“The Rev. Francis LeJau, a missionary from England who arrived in Charleston on the 18th of October 1706, noted in a letter that ‘Upon my first Landing I saw the Inhabitants rejoycing: they had kept the day before holy for a thanksgiving to Almighty God for being safely delivered from an Invasion from the French and Spaniards.’”
As the colonies became a new nation in the late 1700s, Thanksgiving was celebrated off and on, depending on a presidential proclamation. In 1837, Northern abolitionist and editor Sarah Josepha Hale started a campaign for a national day of thanks every year.
In 1844, S.C. Gov. James Henry Hammond called for South Carolinians to worship as “becomes all Christian nations.” That irritated the state’s Jews, who were early settlers to the English colony more than 100 years earlier thanks to its religious freedom, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution by South Carolina framer Charles Pinckney. Charleston’s Jews protested Hammond’s holiday by reportedly keeping two synagogues in Charleston closed.
In the 1850s, many states, including South Carolina, adopted Hale’s recommendation and declared Nov. 25 to be an annual thanksgiving. In 1858, the Charleston Courier reported, “Our city presented a Sunday appearance. Business rested. The stones answered only to the wheels of light vehicles. The church-bells discoursed sweet music, and crowds flocked to the houses of worship.”
Then in 1863 during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln established the custom of the last Thursday of the month being proclaimed as a national holiday. In the years that followed, each president made a thanksgiving proclamation. It wasn’t until the fall of 1941 that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law setting Thanksgiving as an annual national holiday in November.
This year as your family partakes in its Thanksgiving traditions, let’s try to set aside all of the squabbling in Washington and in local politics. Let’s stop for a moment to give thanks for blessings of family, friends, business, community and America. And then, if you’re inclined, turkey-out on a feast of good food, parades and football. Gobble, gobble.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Interesting flower
Here’s an orange flower we recently spotted in California. While we usually only do South Carolina mysteries, we thought you’d like it at Thanksgiving and might want to tell us what it is. Send your best guess – plus hometown and name – to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Meanwhile, last week’s mystery showed an honor guard welcoming people to the new American Gardens, a new urban park in downtown Charleston. Hats off to Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas, George Graf of Palmyra, Va., and Frank Bouknight of Summerville for correctly identifying it.
- SHARE: If you have a Mystery Photo to share, please send it to us – and make sure you tell us what it is!
Not a fan …
To the editor:
Stop dividing our country with your hateful TDS! PRESIDENT Trump was overwhelmingly elected. Why don’t you try to unify for once.
– Shannon Bernardez, Greenville, S.C.
… but she’s a fan
To the editor:
I very much appreciated your recent Red Lights opinion piece in the Charleston paper.
You highlighted all of the trends, for better and worse, that have hit us since Trump was re-elected. I sincerely hope you are correct that political leaders and the public will take a pause and reconsider the direction in which MAGA has taken us.
Please rerun this editorial as necessary – we will all need to be reminded, periodically, as we approach the time when we have the opportunity to make a difference in the next election.
– Carol Brown, Beaufort, S.C.
Send us your thoughts
Please send us your thoughts about politics and policy in South Carolina, but make sure to leave phone numbers and hometowns to help us verify them for publication. We publish non-defamatory comments, but unless you provide your contact information – name and hometown, plus a phone number used only by us for verification – we can’t publish your views.
- Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
Statehouse Report, founded in 2001 as a weekly legislative forecast that informs readers about what is going to happen in South Carolina politics and policy, is provided by email to you at no charge every Friday.
- Editor and publisher: Andy Brack, 843.670.3996
- Statehouse bureau chief: Jack O’Toole
Donate today
We’re proud to offer Statehouse Report for free. For more than a dozen years, we’ve been the go-to place for insightful independent policy and political news and views in the Palmetto State. And we love it as much as you do.
But now, we can use your help. If you’ve been thinking of contributing to Statehouse Report over the years, now would be a great time to contribute as we deal with the crisis. In advance, thank you.
More
- Mailing address: Send inquiries by mail to: P.O. Box 21942, Charleston, SC 29413
- Subscriptions are free. If you want to subscribe, send us an email: feedback@statehousereport.com with the word “subscribe” in the subject. We hope you’ll keep receiving the great news and information from Statehouse Report, but if you need to unsubscribe, go to the bottom of the weekly email issue and follow the instructions.
- Read our sister publication: Charleston City Paper (every Friday in print; Every day online)
- © 2025, Statehouse Report, a publication of City Paper Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.
Help keep the City Paper free.
No paywalls.
No subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations.
Help support independent journalism by donating today.