S.C. leaders hope new plan will protect waterways

South Carolina leaders are working to ensure the state doesn’t run into water shortage issues.

“We say we’ve got an abundance of it,” said S.C. Rep. Ralph Norman during the June meeting of the Catawba Wateree River Basin Advisory Commission in Rock Hill. “If it’s used up, we don’t.”

South Carolina is in the middle of a two-year process to create a water-use plan in all eight of its major river basins.

“This is a hot issue in the Legislature,” Norman said.

The Simplified Water Allocation Model was introduced in the Saluda and Edisto basins. The Catawba, which includes Lake Wylie, and Pee Dee are in the third wave of introduction.

Each basin hosts a public meeting to wrap up the process, but dates have not yet been set for the Catawba. Information will be posted at scwatermodels.com. The entire process should be complete next year.

The SWAM model is similar to one in North Carolina, and shows how much water flows through areas based on natural availability and consumption by businesses, public intake and farming.

“It basically calculates how much water is in the system,” said David Baize with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control Bureau of Water.

The state will use the system to issue or deny permits and to plan for growth in areas that can best sustain additional water use. The model can run scenarios, such as introducing new factories or minimizing severe drought.

“You can visually see what’s in the system,” Baize said.

In recent years S.C. Sen. Wes Hayes and others introduced surface water permitting legislation in South Carolina, requiring large water withdrawers to show it will not harm state waterways. Agricultural users, which make up 3 percent of users statewide, are exempt, but must report water use to the state. Not long after the water permitting legislation began, South Carolina farmers near a proposed potato farm in the Edisto River basin argued the large, out-of-state project would use too much water and put their supply in jeopardy.

“All water sectors are going to grow in some way,” Baize said.

Baize said should an application like the potato farm plan arise, the new water-use model will help.

“Hopefully, you can have a data-driven debate,” he said.

State leaders hope the completed model will also serve new water customers and other groups interested in protecting water resources.

“We wanted to have the model to use for everyone,” Baize said.

This story was originally published July 2, 2015 at 12:08 PM with the headline "S.C. leaders hope new plan will protect waterways."