Greenville Water System (“GWS”) owns and operates two 30 inch raw water transmission mains (“RWTM”) for the purpose of transporting raw water from the Table Rock Reservoir to the GWS treatment plant in northern Greenville County. GWS proposes to construct a 7.8 mile 42-inch RWTM from the Table Rock Reservoir in Pickens County, traveling into Greenville County, back into Pickens County, and ending approximately 0.9 miles east-southeast of the intersection of Marked Beech Road and JC Styles Road in Greenville County. The proposed construction route will cross the South Saluda River three times, Duck Creek and Matthews Creek one time each, and numerous tributaries to the South Saluda River and Duck Creek to a total of at least 26 total river crossings. The proposed route will also cross three wetland areas associated with Matthews Creek.
The construction of the project, according to GWS, will result in the filling of 0.332 acres of wetland and 0.2451 acres of open water. DHEC issued a water quality certification and permit for construction in navigable waters for the project. We appealed to the DHEC Board on various grounds, including an argument that DHEC should impose special conditions on the permit and certification requiring GWS to release minimum flows to the river to maintain water quality. The DHEC Board heard the case on April 9, 2009. The Board said it was sympathetic but that DHEC lacks authority to impose such a special condition. We believe this ruling was plain error. We have filed an appeal to the Administrative Law Court and the case has been assigned to Judge John McLeod.
Clients: Upstate Forever, South Carolina Native Plant Society, and South Carolina Wildlife Federation
Other parties: DHEC and Greenville Water System
Attorneys: Stephen Hightower for DHEC, Gene McCall for Greenville Water System