500,000 gallon wastewater spill shuts Rifle Range Road

MOUNT PLEASANT — A 500,000-gallon wastewater spill on Rifle Range Road at Seaside Farms shut down about a mile of the busy transportation artery and posed a potential threat to oyster beds, officials said.

The oyster season opens in September. Seaside Farms ponds drain to tidal creeks next to state shellfishing grounds, said Clay Duffie, Waterworks general manager.

“Those are the ones that we are really worried about,” he said.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control is monitoring the situation, he said.

Rifle Range Road was shut from Isle of Palms Connector to Franke Drive except to residents who lived in subdivisions along that section of the road, which also serves a nursing home and a shopping center.

In Seaside Farms, signs were posted advising residents not to come into contact with water in the affected ponds, where containment booms were placed to stop the spread of the wastewater. Clean-up crews removed floating material and standing wastewater from drainage ditches. Wastewater pump stations were turned off, and wastewater was hauled from them using tankers to the main treatment center on Rifle Range Road.

Nine subdivisions along the road were affected. Residents from Seaside Farms to Porcher Bluff Road were advised to limit the use of the wastewater system including flushing the toilet and running the water for a prolonged period to reduce the possibility of sewage overflows or spills.

The repairs were expected to be finished sometime Thursday , Duffie said.

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