Friends of the Edisto Newsletter (WHERE WE STAND: Protecting Our Edisto) Apr 29, 2014

Friends of the Edisto Newsletter of Apr 29, 2014 -- features:

- WHERE WE STAND: Protecting Our Edisto April 29, 2014 (text presented below)

- Stewardship Day - Edisto River Cleanup set for May 10, 2014 at Colleton State Park

- 2013 River Journey: Chapter 4 by Alan Mehrzad

Friends of the Edisto Newsletter

WHERE WE STAND: Protecting Our Edisto
April 29, 2014

By Tim Rogers
President, Friends of the Edisto

On April 9, the prestigious conservation organization American Rivers declared the South Fork Edisto River 6th on a list of the 10 Most Endangered Rivers in America.

The organization cited the continuing threat of inadequate legal protection of South Carolina rivers from surface water withdrawals for agricultural use.  Friends of the Edisto (FRED) sued after SC Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC)  authorized a large-scale registration for a large-scale agricultural user on the South Fork under a recently revised statutory provision permitting surface water withdrawals with no permit requirement, no public notice or hearing, no consideration of the public interest in other uses or in maintaining adequate in-stream flows to sustain the ecological health of the River and the forested wetlands it borders.

Fortunately, FRED was able to settle its lawsuit and secure agreement on several important concessions at this site.  FRED has urged support for legislation such as H-4817, introduced by Rep. James Smith, D-Richland, which would provide important new protections for our rivers, similar to what applies for other uses for surface water withdrawals.  (You can read the bill posted on FRED’s website and facebook page.  You can also let FRED know the position of your Senator and Representative on this issue by emailing [email protected] (link sends e-mail) or writing FRED at post office box 5151, Columbia, SC, 29250.)

FRED Vice-President Norman Brunswig,  executive director of Audubon South Carolina, in his recent editorial (presented below) sums up our concerns in his call "For all who love the Edisto and the ACE Basin...take heed..."

Save the endangeed Edisto River while we still can

By NORMAN BRUNSWIG  (opinion published in the Post & Courier, Apr 24, 2014)

Bo Petersen's Feb. 17 Post and Courier front-page article, "Future hangs in the balance for backwaters Edisto," is a call to action for all those who love the Edisto. The numbers Mr. Petersen showcased, such as 639,800 gallons of treated wastewater discharged into the river every day (38 percent of its average daily flow), were truly shocking.

On April 9, we again saw the plight of the Edisto River making front-page news. In Petersen's story, "Edisto endangered," he brings attention to the fact that the Edisto was recently ranked sixth in a listing of America's "Most Endangered" rivers by the conservation organization, American Rivers. The reason given for this dubious distinction was excessive water withdrawals.

Rarely does a precious natural resource die of a single environmental assault. More often they succumb to the much more common and subtle death by a thousand cuts, such as bleeding off 110.5 million gallons per day of Edisto water to another basin, transfusing 110 million gallons per day to hydrate Charlestonians, 400,000 gallons per day to irrigate potatoes for potato chips, and on and on.

For forty years Audubon South Carolina, its conservation partners and private landowners have been protecting habitat in the Four Holes Swamp watershed, which makes up about one-third of the Edisto River Basin. This work has protected more than 30,000 acres, most of it in and near Four Holes.

Recently we have expanded our focus to include much of the main stem of the Edisto, from the confluence of Four Holes Swamp with the Edisto up to the junction of the North and South Forks, and several miles downstream.

The terrible irony is that no matter how successful we and our partners are at protecting important habitat in and along Four Holes Swamp and along the Edisto and its tributaries, if we do not protect and preserve the flow rates and water quality of the Edisto river itself, we will not have succeeded.

In the subtitle of his February piece, Mr. Petersen used the expression "small-scale water wars." The only thing small about these issues is the amount of water in the beautiful, little Edisto, and how very little extra it has to donate to non-ecological functions, particularly at its lowest flows. In drought years, the very ones during which the irrigators will want it most, the Edisto all but dries up. Without water, there is no Edisto River.

For all of you who love the Edisto River and the ACE Basin into which it discharges, take heed. For everyone who thinks preserved land equals protected wetland ecosystems, take heed. We must find ways to apportion the waters of the Edisto to the users and potential users of it, while maintaining generous minimum flows which sustain ecological river and forested wetland functions, and deliver adequate high quality water to support the ACE Basin downstream.

Speak out for the Edisto River, and tell your friends in government that you expect them protect it well, for its manifold natural virtues, and for all of the things it does for the hearts and souls of the people who hunt, fish, swim, canoe, boat and lollygag in and along it. Make them know how important the Edisto is to you.

American Rivers issued a news release stating that the South Fork of the Edisto is among 10 "whose fate will be decided in the next year."

The time to protect the Edisto is now.

Norman Brunswig is executive director of Audubon South Carolina (and Vice President of FRED)