Water reform needed, group says

By Charles Sowell  

DECEMBER 17, 2009 9:01 a.m. (0)

Environmental groups and state agencies fear 2010 will be the last time in the foreseeable future that the state has a chance to get ahead of its water woes.

“Part of the problem is the drought is over,” said Patrick Moore of the Coastal Conservation League (CCL). “The other part of the problem is that if some kind of surface water withdrawal permit is not passed now we will be right back where we were (in the last drought) when – not if – the next drought strikes.”

Lawmakers will be focused on the possibility of impeaching Gov. Mark Sanford and on the state’s budget crisis in the coming session, Moore said.

Surface water withdrawal legislation has languished in committee though the most recent two-year legislative process bubbling to the surface a couple of times only to have the plug pulled. If it is not passed in 2010, lawmakers have told Moore, there will be little likelihood that it will anytime soon.

Moore was in the Upstate to pitch the CCL’s Water Matters agenda hoping to see a meaningful surface water withdrawal bill passed.

“We have a measure in the Senate Agriculture Committee (S.452),” Moore said. “But there are problems with the bill chiefly centering around setting minimum flows, grandfathering existing uses in perpetuity and defining water users and uses.”

With those issues addressed the measure would “be good for business, the consumer and the environment and will strengthen the state’s hand in dealing with North Carolina and Georgia over water issues,” Moore said.

With the exception of a couple of small coastal rivers (mainly around the ACE Basin) all of South Carolina’s freshwater resources are shared with North Carolina or Georgia, Moore said.

The Carolinas and Alabama are the only states east of the Mississippi without surface water withdrawal restrictions.

Moore said Georgia would be sitting in the hot seat in any court battle over shared water issues since they’re addressed many of their shortcomings in dealing with the last drought.

North Carolina has been slow to come around, but seems to be doing so, Moore said, leaving South Carolina as potentially the only state in the east to lack meaningful surface water withdrawal legislation.

“Water is a finite resource,” Moore said. “At some point in time it will become more valuable than oil because there are substitutes for oil but none for water. We must have it to live.”