How You Can Support Conservation in SC this Week

Blog Layout

How You Can Support Conservation in SC this Week

Mar 11, 2024

3 bills in the SC Senate that would protect water quality

All eyes are on the South Carolina Senate right now and we need all our South Carolina Riverkeepers’ help! There's a lot of other legislation outside of the conservation world and we need your help keeping our Senators focused on our water.

Below are a few updates on key legislation and how you can help advance these important bills.

Bill #1: S. 999 (Signage on NDPES Wastewater Discharge Pipes)

Description: This bill would require all discharge pipes to be labeled with who the pipe belongs to and who to call if there is a problem. This is a small ask but would go a long way to improve monitoring and drastically speed up response time for when/if emergencies at the discharge site occur.

What Catawba Riverkeeper Says: Having wastewater discharges labeled will greatly help the public know who is discharging into our waters and who to call in the event of a problem or emergency with the pipe.

The link to the bill page can be found here.

Bill Status: Currently with the Senate Agriculture committee, has a subcommittee hearing scheduled for Wednesday, March 13 at noon.

What You Can Do: Look up your State Senator here and send them an email, introducing yourself, saying what road you live off, that you are a constituent, and that you support transparency between wastewater dischargers and the public!

Bill #2: H. 3121 (Trails Tax Credit)

Description: This bill would provide a one-time income tax credit to a property owner who allows for public trails on their private property. This credit would be equal to 10 cents per square foot.

What Catawba Riverkeeper Says: We support this bill because it dovetails beautifully with our push for enhanced vegetative buffers across our basin. The buffer ordinance we are pushing for allows for permeable surface trails within the buffer but our ordinance would only apply to new construction. We see this bill as a tool to pay property owners for putting in buffers.

The link to the bill page can be found here.

Bill Status: The bill passed the House UNANIMOUSLY and now only needs a final vote before the full senate.

What You Can Do: Look up your State Senator here and send them an email, introducing yourself, saying what road you live off, that you are a constituent, and you support the expansion of trails in your community.

Bill #3: S. 1020 (Criminalizing Tire Dumping)

Description: This bill sets punishments for tire dumping as well as illegal transportation of tires. We are doing all we can to take tires out of our waters (over 100 were taken out of a 1/10 of a mile sand bar Sugar Creek last year alone), this bill will go a long way to keeping tires from being dumped.

The chemicals that leach out of tires and into our waters and aquatic life are known carcinogens and more. While society used to believe that tires were good fish habitat, it turns out that tires are actually killing them and polluting us in the process.

The link to the bill page can be found here.

Bill Status: The bill is with the Judiciary Committee and is not currently scheduled for a committee hearing.

What You Can Do: Look up your State Senator here and send them an email, introducing yourself, saying what road you live off of, that you are a constituent, and you don't want to see any new tires in our water. If you have volunteered with us and/or ever removed a tire from the water, share that story too! If you have a picture of you doing it, even better!

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Celebrate Earth Month With Us!

05 Apr, 2024

Happy Earth Month! While every month is Earth Month here at Catawba Riverkeeper, we’re excited about the extra attention and enthusiasm for protecting our local environment that comes every April! Throughout this month, we're amplifying our efforts to spread awareness and provide a variety of options for you to get out and learn from, engage in, or advocate for the preservation, protection, and restoration of our shared waterways. Because of that, our calendar is jam-packed with public and private cleanups, guided tours, education programing, outreach events, and fun activities at Confluence & The River Room all month long. Just take a look at some of the events we have going on! In honor of Earth Month, we hope that you engage with us in some of these events by volunteering your time to clean up our water, learning more about issues affecting our water, and sharing our work and mission with other people as ambassadors. If you'd like to make an Earth Month contribution to Catawba Riverkeeper, you can give to our Spring Education Appeal, help us purchase a new Catawba Riverkeeper vehicle, or attend our Ambassador Training and represent us at events throughout the year. Our work is not possible without the support of people like you. We are only a drop in the bucket of worldwide water conservation efforts, but with the support of people like you, we can make mighty waves of change! Thank you in advance for your support, and happy Earth Month!