Key progress made in bill to protect rivers

Lawmakers broke a logjam this week on a bill that would protect the long-term viability of South Carolina's lakes and rivers and strengthen the state's efforts to stake out its claim to water in rivers shared with North Carolina and Georgia.

And we're happy to report that the resolution came down on the side of protecting critical natural resources by maintaining a river's seasonal flow.

For the past two years, a major sticking point in working out a permitting system for surface water withdrawals has been determining the minimum amount that could be left flowing in the rivers.

Industry users were looking for a flat-line minimum, but maintaining the seasonal rhythms of a waterway is important for biological and recreational resources.

South Carolina rivers typically have greater flows in the winter and spring and lower flows in the summer and fall. The changes signal fish to migrate and spawn, feed bottomland forests and flush out pollutants.

The bill had called for a minimum flow that was no less than 20 percent of the mean average daily flow. But average daily flow does not account for natural seasonal fluctuations.

State Sen. Tom Davis of Beaufort, who is on the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee that worked out an agreement, said Friday that with the "minimum flow" issue resolved, he was confident the bill would get passed by the Senate and sent over to the House. This late in the session it's hard to know whether the House will have time to finish with it. But the legislature is in the first year of a two-year session, so the bill will pick up where it leaves off.

Still to work out is a turf battle between the state Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Health and Environmental Control, the agency that would issue permits for surface water withdrawals. Natural Resources wants a formal seat at the table when it comes to determining when a waterway has reached its safe minimum.

The bill calls for DHEC to consider whether a withdrawal request would have "a significant detrimental impact ... on navigation, fish and wildlife habitat, or recreation."

Natural Resources officials should be at the table, and again, Davis was confident that the interagency tussle would be settled.

"We will work that out," Davis said.

It's critical that South Carolina come to grips with this issue. We already are in a U.S. Supreme Court fight with North Carolina over use of the Catawba River, which flows into South Carolina from North Carolina. We also share the Savannah River with the state of Georgia.

North Carolina and Georgia already have surface water permitting laws, putting them on stronger legal footing in any dispute over water use.

Today, South Carolina has no rules about surface water use.

Davis said state Attorney General Henry McMaster warns that in an interstate dispute, the Supreme Court is going to look at whether a state has its own house in order.

Beyond, the legal ramifications of a permitting system, we simply can't afford to squander this resource.

Blan Holman, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, pointed out in a recent column that just last summer, 40 of the state's 46 counties were listed in either extreme, severe or moderate drought. The drought in 2007 was even worse than that, and it followed a five-year drought from 1998 to 2002.

The recent drought only serves to reinforce the need to conserve this precious resource and preserve our right to use it. Population projections make it imperative.

We're glad to see lawmakers make progress on an appropriate permitting system. Industries, too, will benefit from policies that protect the long-term viability of this valuable resource.

We certainly can't continue to leave our lakes, streams and rivers virtually unprotected.