SC city is polluting river with toxins, but it won’t stop the discharges, letter says
.png "The Pocotaligo River in Sumter and Clarendon counties has some of the highest levels of toxic forever chemicals in the state. It was recently found to have high levels compared to other rivers across the country. A wastewater plant and industries are believed to the sources, a recent report said.")
Environmentalists are threatening to sue the city of Sumter and three industries over chemical pollution in the Pocotaligo River, a South Carolina waterway with some of the nation’s highest levels of the dangerous compounds.
The Southern Environmental Law Center says Sumter’s Pocotaligo wastewater plant is releasing “substantial amounts of toxic’’ forever chemicals into the river in violation of the federal Clean Water Act, which requires controls on sewer plant discharges.
Sumter did not disclose the release of forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, to the state’s environmental department, when it sought a discharge permit, the center said. The city is continuing to discharge the pollutants from its Pocotaligo wastewater plant, according to a letter Tuesday from environmentalists to the city and the three industrial plants.
The forever chemical levels are so high the river has been “rendered toxic and effectively unfishable,’’ according to the letter, which threatens a lawsuit. High forever chemical levels also have been found in sewer sludge that is being shipped to a Florida company, the letter said.
Industries named in the letter are Giant Resource Recovery, Phibro Tech and Carolina Filters. The State was seeking comments from the industries this week, but had not heard back from all of them by midday Tuesday. Carolina Filters said it is following the law, but noted in an email that PFAS “is an area of evolving regulatory focus across many different industries.’’
The three industries release wastewater to Sumter’s sewer system, which then releases forever chemicals into the Pocotaligo without treatment, the letter said. By law, industries are supposed to treat certain pollutants before releasing them to the city system.
“For years, the city of Sumter has allowed industry to pass toxic chemicals through the city’s treatment plant, resulting in one of the most PFAS-polluted rivers in the nation,” law center attorney Carl Brzorad said in a news release. “We are calling on Sumter to follow its own ordinances and the Clean Water Act and tell industry to stop sending toxic PFAS into the city’s sewers.”
The law center, in its letter, gives Sumter and the industries 60 days to stop the discharges, or make progress toward controlling them, or the organization will file a federal lawsuit to enforce the Clean Water Act. The law center represents the Winyah Rivers Alliance, an environmental group that monitors rivers in eastern South Carolina. Clean Water Act lawsuits are tools used by environmental groups to force enforcement of the law.
Sumter officials have not heeded requests by environmentalists to cut the forever chemical discharges, Brzorad told The State. The city also has not returned messages in recent months from The State.
“They know they are discharging PFAS and they know where it’s coming from,’’ Brzorad said of the city, noting that Sumter has a local ordinance to prevent the discharges but has not followed it. “So far, they have refused to lift a finger to control the industrial sources of PFAS.’’
Brzorad said the S.C. Department of Environmental Services has sampled the Pocotaligo River and fish that live there, finding some of the state’s highest PFAS levels in a river. But it also has not done anything to control the discharges, he said. The agency has said it is working on the PFAS issue.
The environmental law center letter follows a report by the national Waterkeeper Alliance last year that put a spotlight on the Pocotaligo. Testing by the alliance, coordinated through Winyah Rivers, determined that the Pocotaligo was the most PFAS-contaminated waterway of rivers examined across the country. PFAS levels of 228 parts per trillion in part of the Pocotaligo were higher than any other rivers checked, the alliance found. Forever chemical levels were substantially higher below the Sumter treatment plan than above it, the alliance found.
Officials with the city and the three industries also have found elevated PFAS levels where they have checked, the law center letter said.
The Sumter area’s Pocotaligo River flows east and connects with the Black River, a major waterway that empties into the Atlantic Ocean near Georgetown. Like the Pocotaligo, the Black River also has shown elevated levels of PFAS. Neither river is a drinking water source, but both are popular with subsistance fishermen, who depend on them to put food on the table. The Pocotaligo near Sumter is one of two rivers with that name in South Carolina. The other is near Beaufort.
Forever chemicals are a growing source of concern nationally. Among other things, exposure to forever chemicals over time can increase people’s risk of cancer, cause thyroid problems and immune system deficiencies. Chemical manufacturers knew about the threats for decades, but only in recent years have regulators said they knew about the hazards.
The chemicals get their name because they do not break down easily in the environment. They have been used for decades in a variety of consumer products, ranging from non-stick frying pans to waterproof wind breakers. They also have been a key ingredient in foam used to extinguish fires.
Most cities tested in South Carolina have some level of forever chemicals in drinking water, but do not treat the water to filter out the pollution. Most rivers tested also show varying levels of forever chemicals in the water, state officials have discovered through testing.
In addition to concerns about polluted discharges going into the Pocotaligo, the city also is sending 800 tons of sewer sludge each year to a Florida company for use as fertilizer. The letter said Sumter does not appear to have told the company that sludge contained high amounts of forever chemicals. That would violate the city’s land application ordinance, the letter said.
Sludge from wastewater plants and industries often is sold or given to farmers to enrich fields and crops, but studies have shown that sludge often is contaminated with PFAS and a variety of other noxious materials. That has been an issue in nearby Darlington County, where farm fields and wells have been polluted with PFAS from sludge an industry once provided as fertilizer.
Companies named in the law center’s letter provide a variety of services to customers.
Giant Resource Recovery of Sumter is part of a corporation that recycles waste for re-use in industrial kilns. Giant also has facilities in other areas, including Harleyville west of Charleston, and it has operated cement kilns that have sparked environmental concerns in the past.
Phibro-Tech, also of Sumter, is part of a company that recycles materials. Sumter’s Carolina Filters Inc. provides filters to industries, according to its website.
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 1:52 PM with the headline "SC city is polluting river with toxins, but it won’t stop the discharges, letter says."
