CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – Lowcountry environmental groups are celebrating a recent ruling by a circuit court judge about building large-scale septic tank systems.

The court ordered that public notice be posted when the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services considers a permit for one of these systems.

Representatives with the Coastal Conservation League are calling the ruling a big win, not just for clean water, but also for the public’s right to know what’s going on.

“The issue is, what we are seeing across the coast is [new tanks in] large, dense subdivisions in rural areas like Awendaw, Hollywood and Ravenel and they are doing so without a ton of public input about the water quality impacts that these septic tanks are going to have,” Riley Egger, a member of the Coastal Conservation League, said.

The department approves permits for large-scale septic systems, but they’re not required to hold any public comment before those permits are approved. That means a developer could install a massive septic system upstream from anybody without any notice or opportunity for discussion.

The judge’s ruling now requires that department to provide notice and offer the public an opportunity to comment.

The lawsuit that kicked started this whole thing stemmed from the Waterkeeper finding high levels of bacteria in Charleston waterways.

The South Carolina Environmental Law Project, the Coastal Conservation League and the Charleston Waterkeeper filed a lawsuit arguing the public has a right to know before a large septic system is put in.

Egger says, although they have won this battle, they’re still pushing for stronger state and local regulations.

“We know South Carolina has some of the laxest and the weakest septic tank regulations across the southeast and so when a septic tank inevitably fails as sea levels rise and climate change inundates more of these systems, we are going to see impacts to some of the waterways we all care about,” Egger said.

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