Breaking News – Something Stinks in Laurens County
July 12, 2021
July is a busy vacation month and as many Laurens County residents returned from summer vacation, they received notification from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) of a Draft No Discharge Permit from H2O Blue, LLC.
According to the notice, H2O Blue, LLC is planning to install a Hauled wastewater receiving and evaporation facility at 13233 Highway 56 North, near Clinton. The facility proposes to receive and treat industrial wastewater arriving by truck from various sources. Treatment of the wastewater will be by evaporation using two 400 gallon per hour thermal evaporators. The residue from the evaporation process would be mixed with sawdust and trucked to a landfill.
It was only a matter of time before something like this happened in Laurens County. Without land use restrictions, county landowners are unprotected from this type of operation setting up shop right next door.
So, what are the concerns for nearby residents and the county as a whole?
Several concerned landowners have had conversations with DHEC and here is what we know.
The location of the proposed wastewater receiving, and evaporating facility is the old Bagwell Construction property at the intersection of Barrell State Road at Blakelyville, and Highway 56 North.
The water coming to the facility could come from North Carolina and other states (you know it’s not a good thing when states ship it elsewhere for processing). Some of the water would also be coming from some of the steel mills and other unidentified sources. Water would be evaporated and there would be a sludge remaining in the bottom of the evaporation vessels (thickened material) and the sludge would be incorporated into saw dust and then taken to a local transfer station or waste facility.
The evaporation system is evaporating product into the air, and as we have been told, there should be no contaminates released into the air.
But how can that be? Seems like some of that material even in vapor form will be released into the atmosphere and into our community.
An engineer from DHEC told one of the concerned parties that there could be some odor like a paper mill smell – can you imagine the odor of a paper mill (if you’ve ever been to Georgetown, you know that smell). The smell or odor could travel as far as five to ten miles with the wind.
We have also been told that they will be required to have wells in place to monitor the water in the event of any potential spills. Potential or inevitable?
Duncan Creek is less than a mile away and downhill from the facility. Any breach or failure of the system would impact Duncan Creek, possibly the local water supply and certainly the local farms (animals and crops). In a bad breach the impact could be to those further down the line with the flow to the Broad River.
It is also our understanding that this facility will run 24 hours a day and there are no plans to provide security and a chemist on the premises. Just one bad load and Laurens County will be facing contamination that will impact our streams and more for a very long time.
This is going to affect all of Laurens County.
The location of the proposed facility is in the middle of an area of greatest growth on the interstate near Clinton. A stone’s throw away are spec buildings, hotels and restaurants. The City of Clinton is also in the process of building a massive sports complex less than one mile away. And that doesn’t speak to property values of those in the near vicinity of the facility.
This will affect the quality of life for all Laurens County residents.
Want your voice to be heard?
A meeting of property owners and concerned Laurens County residents will be held on Tuesday, July 13th at the Clinton House at 6:30 pm at the Overlook building. Be there and raise your voice. If you can’t attend the meeting please feel free to reach out to Steve and Pam Orr at 864-833-5917.
