County-wide water and wastewater system
Jerry E. Halmon, Staff Reporter
A proposed county-wide
water and wastewater system, to be
overseen by a regional water and
sewer authority, is drawing more
questions from Bamberg Board of
Public Works officials than
answers.
Bamberg Board of Public
Works General Manager Bruce
Ellis told BPW Commissioners at
Monday night's meeting that after
a recent meeting with County
officials, officials from the other
municipalities in the county and
Representative Bakari Sellers, he
came away with many unanswered
questions about the proposed
county-wide water and wastewater
system.
“I’m concerned, Ellis said. I
can’t get a lot of the answers I’m
looking for. The BPW and the
towns of Denmark, Olar, Govan
and Ehrhardt will have to make a
big decision.”
As for the proposed new
water and wastewater system being
placed under the watch of a
regional water and sewer authority
that would control outside interest
and buy and distribute water.
“ To be honest, we’re a small
county. We’re too small for that.
You can’t compare us to Lexington
County and the growth they have
there. We're the smallest county in
the state. There are no customers
out there and to have another
governmental agency in Bamberg
County, I don’t understand,” Ellis
said.
Another concern Ellis had
with the proposed new water and
wastewater system is the affect it
would have on the BPW’s balance
sheet and having to write-off large
amounts of money as depreciation.
“Itmakes it look bad on our books.
Are they going to put it on their
books? Who's going to pay for this
if they can’t make it up in the sale
of water-which they won't be able
to.” Ellis said funding for the
proposed system would come in
the form of grants and long-term
loans.
“When it comes time to
making the payments and the
county is going to have to
guarantee them, if they can't make
it through revenue sale of water or
waste water then the county is
going to have to pay. Show me a
business plan where the money is
coming and going.”
Ellis noted that 85 percent of
the citizens in the county reside in
one of the county’s municipalities
that already have water and waste
water capability that they are
maintaining. He noted that very
few if anyone in the county is
going to get off a well or septic tank
that is “working perfectly.”
As for the question of
economic development, Ellis said
that a lack of water and wastewater
is not the problem. He noted the
recent expansion of two industries
in Barnwell County that he said
had 1/10 the wastewater capacity
of the Board of Public Works.
“They’re not coming to
Bamberg or Denmark because we
already have more wastewater than
Barnwell but they’re still building
in their industrial park. Don't throw
wastewater capacity in my face.”
“Wastewater is not the
solution, people want rail and truck
lines to get to Aiken so they can get
to Atlanta on I-20.”
In other business:
Ellis said that the
Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) would be stepping up its
enforcement of the industrial and
institutional discharge of fuel, oil
and grease into sewer lines. He
noted that the EPA oversees the
Department of Health and
Environmental Control (DHEC)
who oversees the BPW. “EPA will
be looking over our shoulder. The
BPW will be making sure people
clean out grease traps,” Ellis said.
