Be an advocate for S.C. rivers

South Carolina has the best of rivers and the worst of rivers — three clean enough to be designated as Blue Trails and one compromised enough to be ranked the sixth most endangered river in the nation. The contrast is instructive.

The Twelve Mile River in Pickens County is another case. It recently won protection from a federal judge. Last week, Schlumberger Technology Corp. was given a year to comply with a 2006 court order to remove two dams from the river to reduce PCB contamination downstream in Lake Hartwell. It's about time. Warnings about contaminated fish have been posted at the lake for 30 years.

In a state where rivers are a vital part of the natural environment, there's a greater need to focus attention on what keeps the best pristine and what has diminished the quality of others.

American Rivers, a national river conservation organization, urges anyone who experiences clean rivers firsthand to become an advocate for keeping them healthy. That's why it designated the Wateree, Congaree and Waccamaw rivers Blue Trails as invitations to South Carolinians to paddle these clean rivers.

As American Rivers points out, healthy rivers provide recreational opportunities, supply drinking water and wildlife habitat and benefit the economy.

Paddlers expect Blue Trails to be clean and good for exploring. In South Carolina, those rivers have added allure. Along the Waccamaw, for example, you can see Carolina pygmy sunfish, American black bears and plantations along its shore. The Wateree winds through Congaree National Park and offers lessons in history as well as some of the East Coast's best overnight camping along an undeveloped river corridor.

Unhealthy rivers, on the other hand, harm wildlife, discourage recreation and hurt the economy. The 200-mile Saluda is "choking from phosphorous pollution" being dumped by wastewater treatment plants, according to American Rivers. The river, which begins near the state's border with North Carolina and joins the Broad River to flow into the Congaree, is a source of drinking water for more than half a million people.

That organization and state conservationists are asking the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control to impose "meaningful limits" on phosphorous released by wastewater treatment plants.

River advocates also support legislation that would regulate how much water industry can remove from the state's rivers. Unfortunately, a bill to accomplish that failed again to advance in the Legislature last session.

As further indication of the importance of rivers, South Carolina has filed an expensive lawsuit to ensure North Carolina's usage of water from the Catawba, which flows from that state into ours, does not deprive us of needed water.

The state's rivers are treasures of incalculable value to those who fish, paddle or simply drink their water. The state should do more to ensure that our best rivers stay pristine, and to protect all S.C. waterways from being polluted or pumped dry.