Sanford signs water bill

Gov. Mark Sanford signed what he called the year's most important piece of legislation Thursday, the South Carolina Surface Water Withdrawal, Permitting, Use and Reporting Act, which sets limits on new industrial and agricultural water use.

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Speaking at the Charleston Maritime Center, Sanford said the bill also sent a message to neighboring states such as Georgia, where gubernatorial candidates recently put forward the idea of transferring water from the Savannah River to supply water to Atlanta.

"We won't ask you to do anything we are not doing ourselves," Sanford said.

The law is the product of five years spent belaboring technical issues, said leading sponsor Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Goose Creek.

It includes a grandfather clause, which means that new restrictions will not apply to existing surface-water users, but new users -- factories and farms, mostly -- will have to maintain lakes and streams at levels set forth in the act.

Campbell shares an office in Columbia with Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, and Campsen joked at the signing about the two butting heads as they hammered out the bill.

"He came from a perspective of making sure industry interests get the water they want," Campsen said. "I was coming from the perspective of making sure that the highest priority goes to the resource and the public's enjoyment of that resource."

The act will affect any company withdrawing more than 3 million gallons of water per month, including power companies, which use river water to cool power plants and nuclear generators.

Denver Merrill, director of Citizens for Sound Conservation, said he and the business leaders involved in his organization were pleased with the act. "We're trying to find that right balance between growth and protection," Merrill said.