Councilman Perry K. Waring Plum Island is no stranger to water leaks when the tides are high and the rain is deep, but the impacts of Tropical Storm Debby have led to sewage spillovers into marshes and creeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Plum Island Wastewater Treatment plant, one of the largest sewer plants in South Carolina, is located on a 22-acre island in the Charleston Harbor. For 50 years, raw sewage from West Ashley, James Island and other areas has been treated there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the plant can only hold so much water. Typically, Plum Island sees about 25 million gallons a day, said Mike Saia, spokesperson for the Charleston Water System. On Aug. 6, the plant was inundated with 95 million gallons, leading to two leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first spillover of the morning, which saw partially treated wastewater spill into Dill Creek, stopped overflowing as of 2:30 p.m., Saia said. He did note that the leak could return at the next high tide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhenever the area gets a heavy rain, coinciding with a high tide, all that massive amount of stormwater that infiltrated the sewers heads to Plum Island,\u201d Saia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When high tide comes in, treated wastewater is typically released into the shipping lane. But when major rainstorms compound, they put pressure against the flow coming out of the plant and into the harbor, Saia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen it then gets some resistance, it backs up and just happens to back up at one point in our plant every time,” he said. “When these conditions are present, it overflows.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n A remedy is in the works to upgrade the plant\u2019s effluent pump station that can withstand extremely high tides and rainstorms mixed together \u2014 but the execution is still three to five years out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plum Island is currently in the midst of a $110 million capital improvement project at the site where the the new effluent pump station would be located. Until the project can kick off, the current solution is to let the tide roll out and the rain subside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As CWS monitors the somewhat routine overflow, Saia said a second leak has since sprung in another location. This one for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is wastewater that\u2019s much earlier in the process,\u201d he said, though he is unsure what exactly is causing this particular overflow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely attributed to the high flow, but this isn\u2019t the first time we\u2019ve had flows of this magnitude before,\u201d Saia added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The water is coming from the plant\u2019s primary clarifiers, releasing wastewater on the side of Plum Island that faces a small unnamed creek. The unnamed creek is directly adjacent to James Island Creek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Andrew Wunderley, executive director of Charleston Waterkeeper, said that the wastewater that leaked from the plant is, simply put, disgusting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “It’s not fully treated sewage. So poop water from homes, businesses and wherever else goes to the Plum Island treatment plant to be treated before it’s discharged into the harbor,” he said. “But in this case, because of all the rainwater and floodwater that’s gotten into the sanitary sewer system, the treatment plan is overwhelmed, and that partially treated sewage is spilling out of of the plant into the marsh and the harbor there where it’s located.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wunderley said that untreated sewage is full bacteria and pathogens that can cause everything from ear, nose and throat infections and the stomach flu<\/a> to serious diseases like cholera and tuberculosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
wa*****@ch***********.gov<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPoop water on the rise as Debby causes leak at Charleston sewage treatment plant<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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