Decision will affect sewer plan

The Special Wastewater Issues Committee appointed to study whether the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments should allow private companies to own and operate wastewater utilities is expected to make a recommendation to COG in March.

Charleston City Councilman Tim Mallard, also chairman of the Special Wastewater Issues Committee, said members will have one more meeting on the issue before making its recommendation, although a date for that meeting hasn't been set.

The panel was formed by the COG board after concerns were expressed about a COG executive committee vote in October to recommend prohibiting all future privately owned wastewater utilities. Executive committee members said they made the decision based on past experiences in which developers built treatment systems and later abandoned or failed to maintain them.

The special committee's final decision will be important to the town of Awendaw.

In October, the town sent a request to COG asking to change the area's water quality plan, so it could become the managing agency of a water and sewer district that begins north of Mount Pleasant and stretches to the northern Charleston County border.

As part of Awendaw's proposal, a private company, Low Country Utilities LLC, would build and operate the wastewater treatment facility.

Town officials have since changed their proposal to become the managing agency of a district strictly for the town of Awendaw.

Some residents fear a sewer treatment plant would damage Awendaw's rural character and threaten the Francis Marion National Forest that surrounds the town because of the growth that could follow. Residents currently use septic tanks, which traditionally have limited density to about one home per acre.

Mallard said the issue is not a political one.

"This is not an issue about growth. Growth should be controlled through zoning, not sewer," Mallard said.

Sam Robinson, an Awendaw Town Council member and member of the special committee, suggested during a Jan. 30 wastewater issues meeting to wait on making recommendations to COG until Charleston County could finish updating its comprehensive plan. That would delay the special committee's recommendations beyond March.

"Maybe we are moving a bit too fast," Robinson said during the January meeting. "If Charleston County is going to have an overall impact of what happens in the small municipalities relative to wastewater treatment, maybe we need to slow it down ... until Charleston County gives us some oversight."

Placing a hold on the recommendation also would delay sewer plans for Awendaw.

Awendaw Council member Nell Daniels, who was elected after the sewer plan was submitted, said the Low Country Utilities sewage treatment plant would require denser development than what Awendaw has.

"The development it would demand to be financially feasible is not an appropriate amount of development for this area," Daniels said.

The summary of Awendaw's sewer proposal states that the wastewater treatment plant would cost an estimated $18 million, and the system's first phase, including lift stations and other infrastructure, would total $28 million.

Awendaw resident the Rev. Jim Cubie said it would take thousands of homes to make that plan financially feasible when one assumes that the company would pay a $28 million loan over 30 to 40 years.

"The other option that can be done much cheaper is where the town simply takes over and replaces and repairs all of the failing septic systems," he said.

Bryan McNeal Jr., one of the two remaining Awendaw council members who voted to make the request for sewer service, said it's something his community drastically needs.

"A lot of people who die today, their death certificate can say anything, but it can be poisons from your well water that come from your septic system," McNeal said at a recent Town Council meeting.

Mallard said the Special Wastewater Issues Committee meeting in March will focus on septic tanks. Roughly 20 percent of septic systems in and around Awendaw are in need of repairs or are failing. Some are built in poor soil and predate laws that today wouldn't allow them.

Once Mallard's committee makes its decision, Awendaw's sewer plan would go through COG's regular review process. That includes involving a public hearing, a review by the Technical Advisory Committee and Environmental Committee, and final approval or denial by the COG board.

Reach Jessica Johnson at 937-5921.