Home Care In Jenkinsville, SC

JENKINSVILLE, SC (WIS) - You may not think twice about water, but it has become a bit of a controversial issue in part of Fairfield County.

A packed meeting last week in Jenkinsville was supposed to be a time to elect a board of trustees for the water company the area uses. The man running it, the company's president, is also the town's mayor. Customers are worried there is a conflict of interest.

New York transplant Jeff Schaffer pays about $50 a month for his Fairfield County water bill. "Lake Monticello is a wonderful area, great community we have," said Schaffer

It's not the bill that Schaffer says bothers him, it's what's happening down the pipe at the Jenkinsville Water Company. Last week, he joined a room full of water customers at a packed meeting all wanting in on who would be on the board of trustees for the area's only water company.

"I wish I could be the judge and jury on whether it's a legal thing or an ethical thing," said Schaffer. "I think it's a confused thing. All I want is some answers."

That may be because of what his neighbor, Joe Pilon, tells him. Pilon is on the board of trustees, and has questions about last week's election of new board members. "Several people passing hats so we don't know if we have exactly who filled out ballots or not," said Pilon. "It got so chaotic and board members walked out."

He says the head of the company, Gregory Guinyard, passed his own hat to collect the votes for board member nominees, including himself. "I was picking ballots up," he said.

Guinyard says what he was doing was perfectly acceptable. He even had an attorney oversee the process. "He was there to make sure election was done in the proper way," said Guinyard. "He had Robert's Rules [of Order] in hand, by-laws in hand to make sure everything was conducted properly."

Guinyard is a man of several hats. He is also Jenkinsville's mayor. "The two positions are not, they don't intertwine at no point, couldn't be a conflict of interest," said Guinyard. "They're two separate entities total."

Pilon says he plans to resign from the board. Guinyard says he's running a clean business and will answer questions.

Copyright 2011 WIS. All rights reserved.Copyright 2011 WIS. All rights reserved.

The State

State regulators are pressing a small utility with a history of troubles to explain why elevated levels of radioactivity showed up in the drinking water the company piped to customers last year in Fairfield County.

The Jenkinsville Water Co. violated state drinking water standards for radioactivity from July through December of last year, even though the company had installed a treatment system to filter out the contamination.

Radioactivity levels have dropped to within safe standards in recent months, but not by much — and state regulators say they are concerned about the 2,500 people who rely on Jenkinsville Water.

“You are responsible for providing safe potable water to your customers,’’ according to a July 23 letter to Jenkinsville from the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. Water quality “data indicates a necessity for you to initiate an investigation and some form of corrective actions to resolve the violations.’’

The letter gave Jenkinsville a month to tell the public about the violations. In the meantime, DHEC is considering making an enforcement case against Jenkinsville Water that could result in fines or other sanctions. The violations have been referred to DHEC’s enforcement staff, agency spokeswoman Laura Renwick said in an email.

Jenkinsville, a community of working class neighborhoods and higher-end lake houses north of Columbia, has had problems with radioactivity in the water before. Since 2010, the water company has been sanctioned by DHEC four separate times for failing to comply with state drinking water standards, including two for radioactivity.

The company began treating the water at one problematic well after finding radioactivity exceeded safe drinking water standards in 2013 and 2014. Some of the problems cleared up after the treatment process began, but radioactivity levels spiked last year in the public supply well on Clowney Road, DHEC records show.

The Jenkinsville Water Co. operates in a part of South Carolina served by the V.C. Summer nuclear plant, but its problems are not known to be related to the power plant. Like some other small water systems, Jenkinsville is in an area where radioactivity occurs naturally in groundwater.

Despite that, water systems must take steps to lower the naturally occurring radiation in drinking water they supply to customers to make sure people’s health is protected. Over time, drinking water with elevated levels of radioactive pollutants can increase a person’s chances of bone cancer and kidney damage.

In this case, Jenkinsville was cited for having gross alpha levels above safe drinking water standards. These readings are a measure of radioactivity in the water from contaminants such as radium or uranium.

DHEC says it is not common for water systems to have violations for high gross alpha readings. Agency records show that from 2012 to 2018, the agency made more than 250 enforcement cases for drinking water violations statewide, but only about a dozen were for radioactive pollution in water.

Jenkinsville Water Co. manager Greg Ginyard said the water is safe to drink. He maintained that the treatment system is functioning since radioactivity has met the safe drinking water standard this year. DHEC said other wells the company relies on comply with the radiation standard.

Ginyard questioned whether elevated levels of gross alpha radiation last year resulted from DHEC errors since that agency tests the water. He is scheduled to meet with DHEC Aug. 7.

“It could have been a mistake,’’ Ginyard said. “We didn’t know anything about it until Thursday, when we got the letter from DHEC.’’

The Jenkinsville Water Co. is one of many small utilities across South Carolina that struggle to comply with drinking water requirements. Unlike big systems, scores of smaller systems lack the money or the expertise to operate in compliance with state and federal safe drinking water laws, The State reported in its “Tainted Water’’ series this past March. Small water systems individually serve only small pockets of the state’s population, but collectively provide water to about 800,000 people.

Through the years, the Jenkinsville Water Co. has had a tense relationship with some customers who have said the system needs substantial improvement.

Fairfield County Councilwoman Bertha Goins, a customer of the system, complained this year of substandard service and muddy water running from her tap. Ginyard has hotly denied that, and this year, had the company’s attorney threaten to sue Goins if she did not stop complaining or provide proof of her complaint.

The Jenkinsville Water System was built in 1975 with money provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to an engineering study by HPG Consulting Engineers Inc. Ginyard says the system is not a public body, despite a state Attorney General’s opinion that it is.

Records show that the utility averaged gross alpha radiation levels of 18 pico curies per liter for the period from January 2018 through June of this year. The safe drinking water limit is 15. The highest levels found were 34 during the testing period last fall, according to the letter from DHEC to Ginyard. The levels dropped to below 13 for the three-month testing period that ended in June, records show.

Matt Mattoon, a Lake Monticello property owner who gets water from the Jenkinsville System, said he’s concerned. Mattoon said the local utility has not done enough to safeguard water it pipes to customers. He has been tracking the issue of radiation in the water since 2013.

““It should be scary for all of us if we’ve been having water problems since 2013 -- and now it’s 2019 and we’re still having problems with the same well,’’ Mattoon said. “Long-term exposure to this water is dangerous.’’

A 2014 report prepared by the Jenkinsville Water Co. says the radioactivity treatment system would be installed while the company examined whether to build a small drinking water plant on the Broad River.

At the time, DHEC said the treatment system was a short term solution until the surface water plant was built. But the surface water treatment system, targeted for operation in 2017, was never constructed. Ginyard said Monday the surface water plant turned out not to be a viable alternative.

“Developing a new water source, adding additional treatment methods or implementing different treatment methods could resolve the problem’’ of elevated gross alpha radiation levels, DHEC’s Renwick said in her email to The State.

During a two year span, South Carolina regulators found evidence that radioactive pollution was tainting the drinking water in a small community north of Columbia.

But after documenting radioactivity in a major supply well, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control recently chose not to fine the Jenkinsville Water Co.

It was the third time since 2010 that DHEC had identified radioactive pollution above safe drinking water standards and decided against fining the water company, records show.

Now, critics of the the Jenkinsville Water Co. are asking why. They say fines — or other penalties that sting — are the best ways to get the company’s attention. The more than 40-year-old water system serves about 2,500 people in Fairfield County near Lake Monticello.

“They should have been’’ fined,’’ said Fairfield County Council member Bertha Goins, a critic of the Jenkinsville Water Co. “That is the only way they are going to come into compliance. It boils down to keeping the public safe. As long as they are not fined, they will continue this.’’

Matt Mattoon, a Jenkinsville customer who owns a home near Lake Monticello, said DHEC should have at least shut down a well that registered the elevated radioactive pollution levels. But Mattoon said DHEC is reluctant to push the issue for fear that the Jenkinsville Water Co. will take legal action.

“DHEC is afraid of a lawsuit,’’ Mattoon said. “Something stricter needed” to be done.

A Jenkinsville Water attorney said DHEC didn’t fine the company because the water system didn’t do anything wrong. The water company had challenged the accuracy of tests showing radioactive pollution in 2018 and 2019. DHEC says the tests were accurate, but the water is now clean.

Concerns about DHEC’s enforcement against Jenkinsville are part of a larger issue in South Carolina: whether DHEC should fine or heavily penalize small utilities when they violate safe drinking water standards. The agency argues that small utilities can’t afford to pay fines. So regulators look for other ways to help utilities fix the problems, DHEC says.

Others say fines could be used in some cases. Or orders to resolve problems could be tied to tougher enforcement measures, such as the state taking over a water system.

“I don’t think DHEC can continue to dodge achieving compliance through ineffectual consent orders that simply ignore past’’ problems,” said Bob Guild, a veteran environmental lawyer who has dealt with DHEC for more than three decades. “Just don’t continue to condone non compliance.’’

An investigation by The State found widespread problems with South Carolina's drinking water systems. Here is what you need to know. By Ashlen Renner

In the Jenkinsville case, DHEC says a fine wasn’t warranted because radioactive elements naturally occur in groundwater in the Jenkinsville area. And the department says the water no longer contains levels of radioactivity above federal and state drinking water standards.

The pollution is not believed to have come from the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Fairfield County, but from the breakdown of naturally occurring radioactive elements in rocks and soil.

“When a water system has an initial violation for a naturally occurring contaminant, it has done nothing negligent, or otherwise, to cause the violation,’’ DHEC spokeswoman Laura Renwick said in an email Wednesday.

“Assessing a penalty in such a case does not accomplish a beneficial outcome and could penalize the system’s customers who could have to pay the penalty via their water bills. If such a violation reoccurs and the system does not move to remedy it and return to compliance, penalties would come into play.’’

Even when radioactivity naturally occurs, state regulations still require water systems to filter out the contamination. That sometimes can be expensive, depending on the circumstances.

DHEC, which is responsible for protecting public health and the environment, issued a notice of violation against the Jenkinsville Water Co. last summer, citing the company for having water with elevated gross alpha levels, a measure of radioactive contamination. Records show the company exceeded the safe drinking water standard for gross alpha during three different compliance periods from January 2018 to June 2019.

The agency also launched enforcement cases in 2010 and 2014 against Jenkinsville over radioactive contamination. But in both cases, DHEC chose not to fine the company if Jenkinsville resolved the problems, according to agency enforcement records. The 2010 case resulted from excessive uranium in the water. The 2014 case was for radium and gross alpha violations.

Jenkinsville officials hotly dispute questions about the drinking water, saying the system is the victim of misguided complaints. The Jenkinsville company, which has won awards for the taste of its water, threatened to sue Goins after she complained about the water earlier this year. No suit has been filed.

DHEC cut the deal with Jenkinsville following questions by the utility about the accuracy of recent pollution tests that showed radioactivity in the water, according to the November consent agreement. The water is safe, an attorney for the water system said Wednesday.

“They had a hard time in this case fining us because of the questions that we raised about the accuracy of the test results,’’ T. Jeff Goodwyn, an attorney for the water company, said. “I think to have fined us, they would have had to have found we were in violation.’’

Despite Goodwyn’s questions about the test results, Renwick said DHEC stands by the accuracy of its tests.

The Jenkinsville Water Co. is among hundreds of small utilities across South Carolina that have had difficulty complying with safe drinking water laws in recent years, The State reported in its “Tainted Water’’ series last spring. Many small water systems are understaffed, poorly funded or have little expertise, but DHEC often goes lightly on them, the newspaper reported. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of drinking polluted water, the newspaper reported.

This story was originally published December 19, 2019, 12:09 PM.

803-771-8537

Sammy Fretwell has covered the environment beat for The State since 1995. He writes about an array of issues, including wildlife, climate change, energy, state environmental policy, nuclear waste and coastal development. He has won numerous awards, including Journalist of the Year by the S.C. Press Association in 2017. Fretwell is a University of South Carolina graduate who grew up in Anderson County. Reach him at 803 771 8537.

JENKINSVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Federal officials have issued a warning about a substantial safety violation at a South Carolina nuclear plant after cracks were discovered again in a backup emergency fuel line.

Small cracks have been found a half-dozen times in the past 20 years in pipes that carry fuel to emergency generators that provide cooling water for a reactor if electricity fails at the V.C. Summer plant near Columbia, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The agency issued what it calls a preliminary “yellow” warning to plant owner Dominion Energy last week.

It is the second most serious category and only seven similar warnings have been issued across the country since 2009, nuclear power expert David Lochbaum told The State newspaper after reviewing records from federal regulators.

A crack first appeared on a diesel fuel pipe in 2003, and similar pipes have had other cracks since then.

During a 24-hour test of the system in November, a small diesel fuel leak grew larger, according to NRC records.

The agency issued the preliminary yellow warning because of the repeated problems.

The commission’s ruling is not final and Dominion will have a chance to explain what happened, utility spokesperson Darryl Huger wrote in an email

Dominion has already started to put in place a plan to improve the reliability of the backup system and like all nuclear reactors there are multiple backup systems in case any component fails, Huger said.

“With a commitment to continued safe operations, we are inspecting and maintaining our generator and related components. We will continue to keep the NRC updated on our future strategy to further enhance our diesel generators,” Huger wrote.

Virginia-based Dominion hasn’t been the only owner of the plant. SCANA built and started the plant in 1984. The South Carolina company had plans to build two more reactors, but billions of dollars of cost overruns forced it to abandon the project in 2017 and sell to Dominion.

Dominion has recently requested to renew the license for the nuclear plant for an additional 40 years.

Longtime nuclear safety advocate Tom Clements told the newspaper the pipe problems should mean a lot more scrutiny by regulators.

“This incident serves as a wake-up call to fully analyze all such systems prior to a license-renewal determination,’’ Clements said in an email.

As two South Carolina utilities cease construction of a pair of nuclear plants this month, over 100 manufacturing workers are being furloughed from their jobs at contractor Westinghouse Electric in Rock Hill.

The furloughs at the Westinghouse Electric office on Mt. Gallant Road are the result of South Carolina Electric and Gas and its partner Santee Cooper’s decision to abandon construction of a nuclear plant in Jenkinsville, S.C., near Columbia, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filed to the state.

After Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, the utilities building the South Carolina plant had originally hoped to still complete the $14 billion project in Jenkinsville. But they reversed course this month, scrapping the project in mid-construction. The plant was about $3 billion over budget and years behind schedule, Columbia’s State newspaper reported.

According to the WARN notice, 113 local workers are affected, most of whom work in field services. Another 561 Westinghouse workers will lose work temporarily at the V.C. Summer power plant in Jenkinsville, which is about an hour and 45 minutes southwest of Charlotte.

“This furlough is not a layoff – it is a company-initiated unpaid short-term leave of absence; not a loss of employment,” a Westinghouse spokeswoman said. “This was done so that employees could retain their benefits and employment status during the temporary furlough period.”

She added that the affected employees will be “separated from the company” if they receive no other assignment from the company before Aug. 31.

The Japanese company Toshiba Corp. bought Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse in 2006 as part of an effort to prioritize nuclear power, which is cleaner than generating electricity with coal or natural gas. But building nuclear reactors is prohibitively expensive, and Westinghouse has saddled Toshiba with mounting losses.

It is unclear whether the decision to stop construction of the South Carolina facilities affects Westinghouse operations in Charlotte.

A Westinghouse spokeswoman could not be reached for comment. Rick Rothacker and Bruce Henderson contributed.

This story was originally published August 21, 2017, 1:09 PM.