Get Hilton Head shame behind us

Think about Hilton Head Island. Does the vision of sewage bubbling up in the yard come to mind? How about the smell of it?

But it is true. It is happening. And it is happening today. In so-called paradise.

Bondie Brown, who lives in the Spanish Wells area, told our reporter the other day: “You walk outside your house, and you see puddles bubbling. And then you smell it and you walk around and start seeing more puddles bubbling.”

This is almost 50 years after the late Dr. Donald Gatch and others made public the seering health problems — including worms in children — that plagued the Lowcountry due in large part to water and sewer issues.

This is 33 years after the island was incorporated into a town.

It is 20 years after a national Rural/Urban Design Assistance team studied the island and said that within five years, public and private entities must make sure all property owners “have an economically realistic opportunity to connect to public water and sewer systems.”

It is 16 years after the Project Safe initiative to help solve this problem was created through the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry.

Yet today it is estimated 1,000 Hilton Head homes still lack sewer connections.

It is a health and environmental hazard.

But is also is a crushing personal blow to a community that is by and large very giving — and very wealthy.

We can take comfort in a number of remedies enacted through all these years. The cheaper public water problem was fixed. And since 2004, the town (that is not in the water or sewer business per se but is responsible for the well-being of all citizens) and the Hilton Head Public Service District (which includes the areas that still need sewer service) have spent a combined $8.5 million to install main sewer lines in areas such as Stoney, Chaplin and Baygall. In 2004, sewer was available to about 80 percent of the district’s customers. Now it’s available to about 95 percent, and about 93 percent have hooked up. Project Safe got service to some 400 residents.

Last December, at the strong urging of new Mayor David Bennett, the Town Council approved $3.5 million to provide sewer access to every Hilton Head resident by 2020.

But that total cost could be in the $7 million range.

The problem is not solved when a main line is laid. The cost for residents to hook into the system can be prohibitive.

This solution is up to the community as a whole, and it is a moral mandate that we get this nagging embarrassment behind us once and for all.

That’s why the new $500,000 grant from the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry is so important.

“There has been a lot of promises over the years that have not been fulfilled,” said Bill Stinnett, chairman of the foundation’s Project Safe committee, which is working to raise money to hook up homes to the public sewer lines.

Hilton Head can do better. Contact the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry to find out how you can help.

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 1:56 PM with the headline "Get Hilton Head shame behind us."