Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2018

70 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasant.Pet | www.MountPleasantBuilders.com feature responsible for inspecting 153 current construction sites in Mount Pleasant to make certain builders are in compliance with their South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control NPDES construction permit. “We have two NPDES field inspectors that are required to visit every active construction site in the town monthly and generate reports and potential enforcement if the site is out of compliance,” Hansen said. He added that Public Service Department crews regularly vacuum out every storm drain around Shem Creek and eventually will be providing the same service to all storm drains in the town. “One pipe can take 10 minutes to an hour,” he said. “Those trucks never stop running.” Owens pointed out that Shem Creek was “extremely polluted” in the 1950s and 1960s, in part because the town had no way to treat sewage. It was discharged directly into the harbor, along with stormwater, according to Mount Pleasant Waterworks General Manager Clay Duffie. At that time, most Mount Pleasant residents had septic tanks. The town’s first treatment plant was built in 1969. Today, Duffie said, there are 153 septic tanks in the Shem Creek watershed, and they are all subject to leaking into the creek. Forty-three of those homeowners are currently able to tie into the town’s sewer system, while 73 would require a line extension. Duffie pointed out that the remaining 37 are in Charleston County. If they are contiguous to Mount Pleasant, they would have to be annexed to be able to tie in. Duffie said it would have cost each homeowner around $5,000 to hook up to the sewer system, but Mount Pleasant will cover around half that expense from the 1 percent of its revenue Waterworks gives the town. He added that an ordinance requires homeowners to tie into the sewer system if they can. “At this point, we want to enforce that ordinance to make a dent in improving the water quality in Shem Creek,” Duffie said. Hansen said the success of the effort to improve the water quality in Shem Creek will depend on more than just the town, Waterworks and Waterkeeper. “In the past 11 months I’ve been with the town, the public and everybody around has shown they have a shared interest and a shared love for Shem Creek,” he commented. “I’m excited that people want to be part of the solution. We can all come together as a town and improve the water quality in Shem Creek.” Photo by Jess Wood. Mount Pleasant Councilman Jim Owens, left, and Andrew Wunderley of Charleston Waterkeeper discuss water quality on Shem Creek.