Up to 12K gallons of wastewater spills into Beaufort County creek after overflow, pump failure

An overflow and a series of equipment failures led to an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 gallon wastewater spill into Battery Creek in northern Beaufort County on Saturday, according to a Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority on Monday.

The wastewater came from the Dowlingwood neighborhood — off Parris Island Gateway near Shell Point and Port Royal — around high tide, about 1 p.m. on Saturday, according to the release. The pump station there was being repaired by a contractor and was operating on temporary bypass pumps when the first and second pumps failed, as did the alarm notification system. The issues have since been corrected, according to the water and sewer authority.

The estimate is based on the number of minutes the overflow continued before the issue was able to be corrected, according to Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority Communications Manager Pamela Flasch. At about 100 gallons per minute, the overflow lasted between approximately 80 and 120 minutes.

Crews cleaned up the overflow into the creek immediately, fixed the equipment issues and reported the spill to state authorities, according to the release. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control is working with the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority to address the effects of the spill.

DHEC has temporally closed the Shellfish Harvesting Area in Battery Creek for 21 days, spokesman Tommy Crosby said on Tuesday. Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority will take water samples in the area and submit the results to DHEC until the bacteria levels in the area are back to normal, he said.

Anyone who sees or suspects a wastewater spill can call the Beaufort-Jasper Water & Sewer Authority at 843-987-9200.

For more information, visit www.bjwsa.org or call 843-987-9213.

This story was originally published February 26, 2018 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Up to 12K gallons of wastewater spills into Beaufort County creek after overflow, pump failure."