A new agreement between two Charleston water groups seeks to address a smelly problem: overflowing sewage in problem areas of West Ashley.
“This is a big win for clean water, and I think it really accelerates the work that’s necessary to get to the root cause of these overflow problems,” Charleston Waterkeeper Andrew Wunderley told the Charleston City Paper.
Negotiations between the two groups began in 2024 after Charleston Waterkeeper sent CWS a notice of intent to sue under the federal Clean Water Act due to the abundance of sewer overflows in the former St. Andrews Public Service District (PSD). The sewer system stretches from near the Ashley River bridges following U.S. Highway 17 to Citadel Mall and back toward Charles Towne Landing.
Though improvements have been made, a few problem areas remain, especially on Donahue Avenue and along neighboring streets in the lower Northbridge community.
In the agreement, CWS committed to:
- Continue and expedite planned inspections, repairs and replacements to the sewer system to reduce sewage overflow events;
- Carry out more rigorous pipe inspections;
- Send quarterly reports to Charleston Waterkeeper and make them publicly available on the progress of pipe inspection and repair program;
- Deploy a customer notification system that alerts customers when there is a sewage overflow. CWS and Charleston Waterkeeper also agreed to encourage customers throughout the system, but especially in West Ashley, to sign up for customer alert notifications to receive timely notifications of overflow events.
“This doesn’t just address the issue of sewage overflows — this agreement will create new solutions that will help the community for years to come,” SELC senior attorney Emily Wyche said in a Feb. 2 press release. “We’re pleased with this result that followed many productive conversations with Charleston Water System.”
Decades of work
Charleston Water System was forced in 1995 to take over the sewer system by an S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (now the S.C. Department of Environmental Services, or SCDES) consent decree due to it being improperly designed, installed and mismanaged, according to the press release.
“This agreement recognizes the many challenges that we have faced in taking over the former St. Andrews PSD and publicly reflects the significant investments and progress that we have made and will continue to make in our system and infrastructure,” CWS said in a statement.
“Those efforts are reflected by the outcome of a recent joint SCDES and EPA wastewater compliance inspection performed after this lawsuit was filed, which resulted in no Clean Water Act or National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit violations and earned Charleston Water System the highest possible ratings.
“We’re thrilled that all parties involved and the public are now fully aware of our wastewater master plan that includes a $250M investment in new tunnels, key pump stations and other renewal/replacement projects, all of which assures we can handle population growth, sea level rise and extreme weather events.”
In addition to the improvements laid out in the agreement, CWS has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to make significant improvements to sewer infrastructure in West Ashley and to the former St. Andrews PSD sewer system. Projects include closing two failed wastewater treatment plants, eliminating illegal sewer bypasses that directly led to waterways and implementing a nationally recognized inflow/infiltration reduction program.
“We’ve spent untold millions to improve that old St. Andrews sewer system and integrate it with our own and will spend nearly $200 million in the next decade to finally resolve our lingering sewer overflow issues that appear after significant rain events,” CWS CEO Wesley Ropp said in the press release. “We look forward to honoring our commitments as part of the agreement and continuing to work with Charleston Waterkeeper on achieving our mutual goals.”
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