Water is a resource many people take for granted until you don’t have any.
RICHLAND COUNTY -- What flows down the Crane Creek is seeping into the ground, according to Northeast Richland County resident Johnny Adams.
“The dump next to me has corroded to the point where it’s affecting my water,” said Johnny Adams.
Adams’ property is located in the Crane Creek Watershed. He has a private well designed to provide him with clean, safe drinking water – but it’s anything but that.
“I have to use chlorine in my well once a month,” says Adams. “I put a gallon it in, but it’s still undrinkable.”
Crane Creek Watershed is polluted with fecal matter, bacteria, and dissolved oxygen.
“It’s been very smelly,” says resident Norma Free. “It’s caused a lot of problems ever since the 1950s and it’s gotten extremely worse.”
The Hollywood Hills subdivision is prone to flooding. According to Free, an old sewage pond overflows after heavy rainfall and runs into Crane Creek.
Though cesspools are no longer used, the remnants of them still haunt both local residents and officials.
“The storm water quality was not a priority until the Clean Water Act came,” said Richland County Storm water Manager Srinivas Valavala. “It’s only after the Clean Water Act that the EPA and DHEC started focusing on the storm water quality.”
Valavala is also a member of the Crane Creek Watershed Association and say three projects have been completed with three more in progress to help clear up the water quality issues. He points out that it will take several years to restore the watershed.
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