Brack: Get to work regulating state’s precious water resources

South Carolina leaders over the last 50 years have done a pretty good job protecting natural resources – from making sure beaches are open to buying land to protect special places.

But now another state resource – clean water – is threatened thanks to the nation’s competitive race to beat the Chinese on artificial intelligence, among other things. Big businesses like Google have a seemingly unquenchable thirst for more massive data centers, which require them to suck up water to cool supercomputers.

About 40 years ago when development activity threatened huge projects up and down the S.C. coast, state leaders had the foresight to approve one of the most prescient protection measures in the country: the Beachfront Management Act. Its purpose was to protect beaches and dunes from erosion and overdevelopment through state regulation of construction, including setbacks and limits on hard structures like seawalls. Through the years, it’s stood the test of time.

About 20 years ago, Republicans and Democrats in the Statehouse united to push through the S.C. Conservation Bank to do for the rest of the state what it essentially did for beaches and the coast – to protect special places. This public policy has been wildly successful, too, with more than 419,000 acres of land protected in 570 conservation projects across the state. The land bank has awarded more than $377 million in conservation grants for land worth more than $1.2 billion.

And now, it’s time for legislators to take serious action on the water we can see in rivers – and the water we can’t see in aquifers – to make sure that there’s enough for us to drink and for farmers to use responsibly to keep agribusiness thriving.

The state took a good opening step last year with a new water plan. But, it’s a plan – not a requirement, law or regulation. According to a 200+ page draft report from November, 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 say the state’s 2010 Surface Water Act doesn’t go far enough in protecting rivers from huge water withdrawals – “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,” according to a Nov. 28 story.

What needs to happen is for the state to step in to approve any large-scale water withdrawal projects instead of counties being the arbiters of what’s allowed. Some counties likely have the foresight to keep water resources in mind, but others – particularly in rural areas like Colleton County where nine data centers are envisioned near the ACE River Basin – desperately need jobs and may be taken advantage of by billion-dollar businesses.

We encourage the General Assembly in 2026 to set up a blue-ribbon commission of lawmakers and environmental advocates to develop a draft of legislation with real teeth to conserve clean water – not just a plan, but recommendations for new legislation that has the courage of laws passed 40 and 20 years ago, respectively, to protect the coast and forests. Then pass it.

For now, one way that state lawmakers can take more than a baby step forward is to give a quick hearing to a bill recently introduced by state Sen. Allen Blackmon, R-Lancaster. His S. 724 would require energy-hungry data centers to report water usage to state officials annually. This would eliminate the void of information we have now about what is actually going on – and how many millions of gallons are being siphoned off to further threaten the state’s clean water resources.

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.