Four big problems with SC Surface Water Removal Agricultural Exemptions - Learned from Walther Farms / South Edisto River. This specific presentation was given to the Aiken County Council on Feb 4, 2014.

1. Four Big Problems
with the Exemption for Large
Agricultural Withdrawals
S.C. Surface Water Withdrawal,
Permitting, Use, and Reporting Act
2010 Act No. 247
Section 49-4
DHEC Regulation R.61-119

2. Four Big Problems
1.
2.
3.
4.
Secrecy
Pumping the River Dry
Eternal Water Grants
No Input Outside of DHEC

3. 1. Secrecy
• Currently, the law allows for any agricultural user to request
hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the river with no
public notice. It is possible that neighbors won't know the water
is being taken until AFTER the water is gone. We believe that our
government should be more transparent and not give the
appearance of secrecy and back room deals.
• In DHEC’s public meeting held January 7, 2014, DHEC said the law
requires us to approve an ag withdrawal with no public notice.
(Source: 1:08:50 of audio at http://tinyurl.com/AikenDHECaudio)

4. 2. Pumping the River Dry
• The current law defines “safe yield” based on a percentage of "mean
annual daily flow“. At low flow periods, the withdrawal amount could
exceed actual flow, and the river would run dry. In the case of the Edisto,
U.S.C. Professor Allan James has demonstrated that the initial request (805
Million gallons/month) would have actually exceeded the total flow of the
river during historic low flows, meaning they were permitted by law to take
ALL WATER from the river. (Source: http://bit.ly/south-edisto-study)
• In DHEC’s public meeting held January 7, 2014, DHEC admitted that an ag
user could actually take the river to “no water for a particular day” and
“there is no minimum instream number at which they would have to stop”
(Source: Listen to 49:20 of audio at http://tinyurl.com/AikenDHECaudio)

5. 3. Eternal Water Grants
• Under the current law, once an agricultural entity is granted
approval of a surface water withdrawal registration, they can pump
that amount of water from the river forever. We believe that large
withdrawals should be reviewed and recertified regularly to ensure a
fair allocation of the resource among all stakeholders.
• In DHEC’s public meeting held January 7, 2014, DHEC confirmed that
registrations “have no duration” and in effect are forever
(Source: 54:15 of audio at http://tinyurl.com/AikenDHECaudio)

6. 4. No Input Outside of DHEC
• DHEC has interpreted the existing regulations as excluding
consultation with other government entities such as the
Department of Natural Resources, the Corps of Engineers, the Fish
and Wildlife Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency. We
believe that DHEC should provide notice to other relevant agencies
and give them an opportunity to comment on the impact of any
proposed withdrawal.
• In DHEC’s public meeting held January 7, 2014, DHEC said there is no
need to consult other agencies.
(Source: 70:00 of audio at http://tinyurl.com/AikenDHECaudio)