The environmental group asked the sumter city to clean the toxic feorver chemical flow from the sewage treatment plants to the eastern South Carolina River, which depends on the desk on the table.
August 25 In the letter to the Sumter officials, the Center for Southern Environmental Laws says that the discharge of the Sumter factory to the Pocotalig River “pose a high risk to human health and the environment”.
According to the research of conservationists and state environmental officials, the Pocotalig River contains some of the highest eternal chemical levels in any state and country.
The Legal Center, a non -profit group that has won many legal victories to stop water pollution, wants city officials to meet the organization’s lawyers to discuss how to solve the problem.
Failure to make progress, the Legal Center could take legal action against the summer. The group’s letter did not say that the claim would be filed, but he stated that, without resolving the problem, it creates a “possible city responsibility” from residents who use the river downstream. The letter also states that summary emissions are illegal under the federal law of clean water.
The Pocotalig River is a popular living for fishermen who take home what they catch while eating. The river flows through the sumter and connects to the Black River, a larger stream that winds east to the coast in Georgetown.
The recent announcement of the National Water Owners Alliance states that the Forever Chemical levels were larger than more than 30 other waterways he had investigated in the US. The Sumter-Pocotalig wastewater treatment plant was likely to have caused great contamination because environmentalists say that the high levels of chemicals were found directly under the plant release pipe. Increased forever, chemical levels were also found in fish from the Pocotalig River.
Forever chemicals, officially known as and polyfluorcular, or PFA, can cause many health problems for people who are facing over time. Certain types of cancer, immune deficiencies, thyroid problems and other ailments were linked to the PFA exposure. They are called Forever Chemicals because they are not easily different in the environment.
The state chronized many PFFs on the exposure to threats of 2023. In the “Toxic Transactions” series, which addressed the effect of PFO contamination with sewer sludge used as fertilizer in southern Carolina.
While forever chemicals can be found in sewer sludge used as crop fertilizers, chemicals can also flow through sewage treatment plants. Most cleaning units are designed to clean the main pollution, such as harmful bacteria before releasing it on rivers. They rarely have systems for filtering chemicals such as PFA, which enter industrial consumers. As with many other cities, Sumter allows industrial consumers to release wastewater they generate into the city sewer system.
A letter from the Legal Center says that more than 20 industry users release it to the summer sewer system. Of these, 11 are industries that can handle eternal chemicals, the letter states.
A letter from the Legal Center states that the summer has the power to clean his factory and should take measures.
First of all, the city needs to determine who sends the PFA to the sumter cleaning unit. Industrial companies confirm that the Sumter system washed off the treated wastewater, but the city needs to know who are responsible for the PFA, according to a legal center.
When this is determined, the city must use its powers to demand that companies using the sewerage system for pre -processed wastewater for forever chemicals, the Law Center Letter said.
Carl Brzorad, a lawyer for the law center, said environmentalists had difficulty reaching sumter officials about the meeting. The Winyah Rivers Alliance, whose river owner helped to try the Pcotage PFF POCOTALIG River, says she twice wrote Sumter officials: “But we didn’t get any response to the relationship,” the text newspaper reads.
This led to the involvement of the Southern Environment Law Center, said Winyah Alliance.
Repeated attempts by the state to reach officials with the sumter city were not successful.
Although PFO’s pollution, which has already entered the river, could last for many years, brzorado said that the contamination flow should at least stop to prevent further environmental problems.
“There is no reason that we should not be able to work together,” said Brzorado. – What we ask is, it doesn’t even require the city to spend money. It is simply asked to use their existing government … identifying industry users who send PFA and require those industrial consumers to heal or stop sending it. ‘
This story was updated with the commentary on the Winyah Rivers Alliance.