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Okatie oysters unsafe to eat

Bacteria blamed for ban placed on stretch of river

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BLUFFTON -- There's so much bacteria in a portion of the Okatie River that oyster harvesting has been restricted, according to a state report.

The action has barred oyster harvesting for human consumption over the last month in a portion of the river along Pinckney Colony in an area bordered by the Berkeley Hall, Oldfield and Riverbend residential communities.

No restaurants are known to serve oysters from that area of the Okatie.

Several environmental groups said Friday that the water-quality downgrade was inevitable due to increasing development in the area, and it highlights the need for more effective and comprehensive stormwater-management ordinances and enforcement.

"With the amount of development on the Okatie, and the fact that we really haven't done enough to protect it from stormwater runoff, it should be no surprise," said Chris Marsh, director of the Lowcountry Institute, a local environmental nonprofit group that encourages conservation and environmentally friendly development.

The report by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said stormwater runoff appeared to be the primary source of fecal coliform bacteria contamination in the area.

More hard surfaces -- such as roads, driveways and houses -- as a result of rapid development increases the volume of stormwater runoff that carries bacteria and other pollutants into the waterways.

The widening of S.C. 170 from S.C. 462 to U.S. 278 also likely increased river pollution, the report said.

Waterways classified as "restricted" allow shellfish to be harvested only for relocation to cleaner waters with a special permit and DHEC supervision.

The Okatie has had water-quality problems since 1996, when DHEC put in place the first restrictions there, said Russell Berry, environmental quality control manager for the region. Over the next 10 years, the waters have been reclassified from "restricted" to "approved" several times.

"This is not something that's a recent development," Berry said. "We think that in the area, there's probably a number of contributing sources of bacteria that's most likely associated with rainfall patterns."

He said DHEC plans to focus efforts this winter on determining whether there are any "illicit" discharges into the river from bordering residential developments.

But some environmental groups say they have the answer.

Marsh and Nancy Vinson of the Coastal Conservation League say it's clear that inadequate stormwater-management practices from nearby developments is the primary source of the water-quality decline.

"We've got a problem, and we've known about it for years," Vinson said. "Now is the time to take corrective action."

The owners of Berkeley Hall, the neighborhood that borders a large stretch of the Okatie, reached a settlement agreement with the Pinckney Colony Homeowners Association in 2001 that required the development to perform quarterly water monitoring in areas where its stormwater emptied into the river.

The agreement, approved by an Administrative Law Court judge, said if the results of the monitoring indicate violation of water-quality standards as specified by DHEC, the development would implement a corrective action plan to decrease pollutants going into the river.

Now that the Okatie officially has been downgraded due to bacteria contamination, Vinson said it's time for those standards to be enforced.

A lawyer for Berkeley Hall was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment.

"We have the evidence that our stormwater standards are not protecting our needs as development continues," Vinson said. "Now it's time to enforce this agreement."

Contact Peter Frost at 706-8169 or . To comment on this story, please go to islandpacket.com.