Mt. Pleasant water leakage repairs 'still ongoing with a lot left to do'

Mt. Pleasant continues its work in partnership with Columbia Power and Water Systems to repair leaks within its water system, which had reported to be draining 400,000 gallons per day.

The leakages were identified over the course of several studies dating back multiple years, particularly Winter Storm Elliot in December of 2022, according to CPWS Director Jonathan Hardin.

In January, it was discovered that winter weather had caused further damaging effects over the system's life cycle, some of which dates back more than 40 years, Hardin said.

"When you are serving rate payers, you need them to know all of the ways you are trying to return value to them. That's important," Hardin said. "It was during that particular event where Mt. Pleasant, basically, put out a cry for help. A lot of utility systems at that time had found themselves in a pickle, which was no fault of their own, but just needed assistance. Our directive was pretty much 'Find where you can help and help.'"

Once the current leakages were identified, the choice became whether to seek the route of new infrastructure and expand Mt. Pleasant's water plant capacity or plug the leak, Hardin said. The city chose the latter.

"There are utilities and entities in the business related to water where, instead of trying to find and fix leaks, they'll just try to get more water. A lot of times it's born out of, 'Why would we spend a bunch of money to find leaks on our infrastructure when we can just get more from the source to make up for how much is leaking?'" Hardin said. "That's not responsible management of natural resources."

Mt. Pleasant City Manager Phillip Grooms said repairs continue being made to fix the leakages.

CPWS Director Jonathan Hardin said, while several leaks were identified throughout the system, one of the worst was just a few hundred feet from the main plant.

"The one prominent leak that was discovered was a break that occurred very close to the plant," Hardin said. "Just within a few hundred feet, there was an area of leakage discovered over the course of working with them and helping with the plant. Then there were some smaller leaks that, once identified and fixed, amounted to a substantial amount of water savings."

Historically, Mt. Pleasant has experienced a 50% water loss, Grooms said. In addition to working to reduce that number with these repairs, Mt. Pleasant remains diligent in giving the customer a fair rate, he said.

Also, upgrades to the city's utilities are ongoing.

"We did a professional rate study a few years back and are implementing that," Grooms said. "We built a water treatment plant going on 10 years ago, and we are finishing upgrades to our wastewater treatment plant. But a lot of people don't realize in the middle of all this we still have the aging distribution lines, aging sewer, and we are all the time looking at our models, capital improvement plans and funding sources."

Grooms said the leakage repairs are halfway completed.

"We are working through those service lines and are about halfway through," Grooms said.

Grooms noted that Columbia Power and Water Systems can provide the city with 200,000 gallons of water when an emergency arises, and can be available in the future as the city grows.

On average, Mt. Pleasant Gas and Water Department currently uses an average of 1.4 million gallons of water per day, according to a recent city press release.

"Our partnership with Columbia Power and Water is great, because we get 200,000 gallons [from them], which we don't need right now, but we take it if we have a line break, or our tanks have fallen. It's also for future growth, because we have a lot of potential there for us that we can build off in the future," Grooms said.

Mt. Pleasant obtains its water from ground water under the influence of surface water, coming from natural springs located south and southeast of the City of Mount Pleasant. A small amount of water comes from Columbia Water and Power Systems. Water is processed through the City of Mount Pleasant Water Treatment Plant.

Although 40% of the leakage points have been identified, Grooms said there is still "a long way to go."

"We're halfway through, but still looking at other areas as to where our water is going and all kinds of things to where we can better study our system on a daily basis," Grooms said.

Hardin said "good work and collaboration needs to be noted" in making the repairs.

"We need to show folks how hard we work together to return value to rate payers, ensure the integrity of our systems and also protect the integrity of the water source we are getting the water from," Hardin said.

"In Columbia, that's the Duck River, whereas in Mt. Pleasant it's ground water supply, which is also finite and something you need to value and protect."

Jay Powell is a general reporter for The Daily Herald. Get up-to-date news in your inbox by subscribing to The Daily Herald newsletter at www.ColumbiaDailyHerald.com.