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McClellanville residents fear effects of public water
By Shannon Cavanaugh
Contributing Writer
Live oak trees line the quiet streets of the town of McClellanville, population 450. This quaint town boasts restored 18th-century homes and welcomes fishermen on their way to the river.
Folks here want to keep their town just the way it is, and that means trying to convince their rural neighbors outside the town’s jurisdiction that accepting public water is not healthy for the community.
“I’m dead set against it. We’re living in Mayberry, our heaven. We even stop for dogs,” said Richard Hunter, a real estate agent with W.P. Baldwin Realty, located on Main Street in McClellanville. “You get water in and sewer’s right behind it, and then the developers come. I live here for a reason and don’t want to see it change.”
But the 800 families living in the rural area outside the town of McClellanville are interested in change. They would like to turn on the faucet and drink tap water. When given a choice of putting in a new well or receiving public water, 92% of the 201 rural residents responding from the Sewee to Santee area chose public water. That survey was conducted by Mount Pleasant Waterworks following a report by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
DHEC ranked Sewee to Santee as the second neediest area for public water improvements in South Carolina following a random sample test of wells and septic tanks. Coastal scientist Stephen Vale Confer-Shabica conducted the tests.
“Some of the wells in the county are very shallow, some just 20-30 feet below the surface. They’re taking water from an area high in iron, some of it 900 times higher than levels recommended. The water is terrible,” said Confer-Shabica.
Town of McClellanville Administrator Mary Duke said she’s speaking on behalf of the 450 town residents when she says they are not opposed to their rural neighbors having good drinking water, but are opposed to public water. The town of McClellanville has told Mount Pleasant Waterworks it does not wish to connect to any public water lines. They prefer their well water and septic tanks.
“Our town has very adamant opposition to pubic water. Most people here would rather drive to buy their water than feel threatened they’ll lose the most special place in the world. McClellanville is so unique,” said Duke. “Public water would allow development on much smaller partials of land. Right now in our town, the minimum size is one acre.”
Public water is definitely a selling point. Real estate agent Pearl Jenkins is trying to sell six acres in a rural part of the Sewee to Santee area. It’s been on the market for several years and its price has been reduced. She said she could have “sold it three times over if the area had public water.”
That’s what board officers Sam Campbell and Cheves Leland of the Sewee to Santee Community Development Corp. are concerned about, along with possible zoning changes that would come with public water. They worry developers will tempt families to sell out. They reference communities such as Charleston National and Hamlin Sound, which were once open fields and are now golf course communities.
The Sewee to Santee district was once covered with rice plantations and is located north of the city of Charleston in the coastal plain between the Sewee and Santee rivers. A majority of the land lies in or is surrounded by the Francis Marion National Forest and is undeveloped.
“Once Mount Pleasant brings in water, (we) make a deal with the devil that will come back to haunt us,” Campbell said. “You just can’t close the door. Our ancestors worked hard for what we got. They left land for us and (with water) developers come with big bucks and buy us out.”
“We want people in the rural areas to have good drinking water as quickly and economically as possible,” Cheves said. “The CDC vision statement is very clear that we want to keep the rural character of the Sewee to Santee area. If we give everybody a good well, it’s a whole lot less expensive, about $2,000 a well, and quicker. It will take years to put in water lines.”
Based on that estimate, if all 800 families outside the town of McClellanville needed a new well, the project would cost around $1.6 million. The price tag for putting in public water to the Sewee to Santee area is $15.5 million.
Representatives with the Mount Pleasant Waterworks are quick to remind the town of McClellanville and the CDC that they were invited into the area to help and are trying to find the best solution for rural families in need of water. However, the town of McClellanville chose not to participate.
To get input from rural residents, Mount Pleasant Waterworks held two public meetings and advertised them in several local newspapers, printed and distributed 1,500 fliers and spoke at 14 churches.
The opposition said these meetings were not well attended or advertised, and a lot of families did not give input.
Clay Duffie, general manager of Mount Pleasant Waterworks, disagreed. He pulled out a big white county map speckled with dots indicating the families who attended.
“We have told people in these rural meetings they are the stakeholders and drivers of this project,” Duffie said. “We have put our professional expertise to the grindstone to get where we are today. (The rural families) are the ones who came to the Charleston County Council with signs asking for help.
"Our plan is to wrap up the study, give it to the board of commissioners for them to make a recommendation, and then it goes back to the rural families for their final input. We are looking for the best solution. These people deserve good drinking water.”
Mount Pleasant Waterworks will present the findings to its commissioners this month. The board will vote on which of the three options—public water, individual wells or community wells—is most feasible and send a recommendation back to the rural families in the Sewee to Santee district for final review and input.
If residents still say they want public drinking water, it will take from three to seven years to secure the funding and put in water lines. If rural residents change their minds and vote for wells, Duffie said Mount Pleasant Waterworks is not in the business of putting in wells and would remove itself from the project at some point.
This public opposition comes after Mount Pleasant Waterworks received grant money from Charleston County to put in emergency water dispensing stations at three locations in the Sewee to Santee area. Rural families can bring their jugs and fill up with chlorinated and fluoridated water for free.
Currently, many rural families living in the unincorporated area of McClellanville, Germantown, Tibwin, Moss Swamp, South Santee and Buck Hall drive to Georgetown or Mount Pleasant to buy drinking water. Some families said they are spending $100 a month just for water.
Opponents said if public water goes in, rural families are at the mercy of high water bills tied to rate increases in Mount Pleasant. In July, Mount Pleasant Waterworks increased rates by 3.9%. With the rate hike, a 7,000-gallon usage that previously cost $21.27 increased to $22.10.
Opponents also worry that if water lines go in, Mount Pleasant Waterworks will put in sewage lines. Duffie said the utility is not interested in putting in sewers.
“We were concerned the utility would be viewed as creating pressure for development. We would like to help them maintain their septic tanks that are currently in use,” he said.
Mount Pleasant Waterworks is waiting to hear the status on availability of state monies and is planning a trip to Washington D.C. to talk with federal officials about funding.
Meanwhile, the town of McClellanville and CDC officials said they will pursue their own grants to help their rural neighbors put in wells and added they might even put up a sign at the entrance to the town that says “McClellanville is full.”
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