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Doug Busbee presents exemplary leadership and advocacy for our rivers...

Blog
9 years 6 months ago

Resident, DHEC square off on mega farms water withdrawals in SC (The State News, October 16, 2014)   —     Doug Busbee has spent nearly a year trying to keep mega farms from siphoning too much water from the Edisto River basin near his home.

Early Thursday, he drove from Aiken County to a scientific conference in Columbia and put government regulators on the spot before a ballroom filled with people.

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SC Water Resources Conference: Video of Day 2 Plenary Q&A Session is worth watching!

Blog
9 years 6 months ago

SC Water Resources Conference: Video of "Day 2 Plenary Q&A Session is well worth watching. Important ideas are presented about water policy and planning priorities from SC conservation leaders. The other video of Plenary Sessions of the Conference are informative as well.

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Guest editorial in The State, Oct 10, speaks to need for stronger water law

Blog
9 years 6 months ago

Guest editorial in The State, Oct 10, 2014 -- Stronger Protections needed for precious SC surface waters --

Columbia, SC — The registration that allowed a single farm to withdraw up to two-thirds of the South Fork Edisto River’s flow during low-flow conditions demonstrates the need for legislative action on state water policy.

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Lawsuit seeks to change water rules for farms

Blog
9 years 6 months ago

T&D News, Oct 11, 2014 -- A group of South Carolina landowners, including one from Bamberg County, are suing to overturn the portion of the state’s 2010 water withdrawal law that sets up different rules for agriculture and industry.

The landowners’ main concern is that agricultural users can take out the same amount of water at all times under the law without regard to water flows, said attorney Amy Armstrong of the South Carolina Environmental Law Project. “It creates a certain, special class of water withdrawal exemptions from the regular permitting process,” she said.

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FRED Response to Farm Bureau & Surface Water Withdrawal Law

Blog
9 years 6 months ago

Individuals representing the South Carolina Farm Bureau and the agricultural business community are saying that "sound science" is the basis of both the 2010 South Carolina Surface Water Withdrawal Act and a recent water-withdrawal registration granted to an Aiken potato farm. Some agricultural leaders are saying there is no problem with the new surface water law and it needs to be given time to work.

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FRED Annual Meeting 2014

Video
9 years 7 months ago

The FRED Fall Membership Celebration is held each fall, and for the past several years the City of Orangeburg has provided an idyllic location on the banks of the North Fork of the Edisto. The Fall Membership Celebration provides an opportunity to reflect on the year that has passed, and to look ahead to the coming year's challenges and opportunities. Awards are presented, a keynote speaker is invited, and there is food, fun, entertainment, and various educational and outreach opportunities.

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Points of Concern with SC Surface Water Withdrawal Law

Blog
9 years 7 months ago

In 2013, Friends of the Edisto (FRED) had to challenge the State's issuance of a water-withdrawal registration on the South Fork Edisto River which in times of drought would allow as much as two-thirds of available flow in the river to be removed by one farm for crop irrigation. The large withdrawal of water was granted to Walther Farms (potato farm) in Aiken County.

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DNR Comments on draft Surface Water Regs of 2011

Blog
9 years 8 months ago

The flawed definition of "Safe Yield" within the State Surface Water Withdrawal Act is described by the South Carolina DNR in their comments to DHEC dated Sep 26, 2011.

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Fred's Second Smoke on the Water Event

Video
9 years 9 months ago

Offering music, food, and fellowship on the banks of the Edisto, Smoke on the Water is an excellent opportunity to connect with Friends of the Edisto. Hosted on private property just upstream from Whetstone Crossroads, where Highway 21 crosses the Edisto.

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Post & Courier Editorial: Norman Brunswig of Audubon South Carolina

Blog
10 years 6 days ago

Apr 24, 2014 -- Nice editorial in the Post & Courier from Norman Brunswig of Audubon South Carolina ...  "Save the endangered Edisto River while we still can"

Brunswig says, "The only thing small about these [water] issues is the amount of water in the beautiful, little Edisto, and how very little extra it has to donate to non-ecological functions, particularly at its lowest flows. In drought years, the very ones during which the irrigators will want it most, the Edisto all but dries up. Without water, there is no Edisto River."

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