Aiken County’s evolving and confusing wastewater management program has become a hot topic during the ongoing debate regarding the House of Raeford’s (HOR) proposed chicken slaughterhouse and processing plant. The complex issue of wastewater system capacity was the key factor in Aiken County Council’s recent decision to allow its tax incentive package for HOR to “die” during its April 16, 2024, public meeting—even though Council did not share that information during the meeting.

Still, one end result has been a heightened public awareness that wastewater capacity at the County’s old Horse Creek Wastewater Plant is a key limiting factor for Aiken County economic growth. This dynamic situation will remain in the public eye while House of Raeford and its allies in state government reorganize efforts to locate the project somewhere in Aiken County, which is considered one of the company’s few viable geographic locations due to the nature of an industry that requires input (live chickens) to be close to slaughterhouses and processing plants.

(Update, May 3, 2024

by Don Moniak
April 24, 2024

As described in $1.1 Million Worth of Water Bills, the fifty-year-old Horse Creek Wastewater Plant is responsible for cleaning up, and keeping clean, Horse Creek—a stream that has endured scores of years of discharges from textile mills which rendered it, and Langley Pond, biologically sterile bodies of water until the late 1970’s to early 1980’s. This depends on one’s definition of ecological recovery, as a fish consumption advisory first issued in the 1980’s remains to this day (Figure 1).

Horse Creek Wastewater Plant, operated by the Aiken County Public Service Authority, is also responsible for processing sewage from multiple sewer and water districts across the Western portion of the county. Treated wastewater must meet State and Federal water quality standards before being released into the Savannah River.

Although the plant’s current permitted capacity is 20 million gallons per day (MGD), work towards future capacity of 26 MGD has been described by two contractors, Feyen Zylstra and GMC, who have completed an electrical upgrade and a plant design study, respectively.

The County Council’s Controversial but Popular Non-Decision

At its regular public meeting one week ago on April 16th, Aiken County Council held the Second Reading of a Fee in Lieu of Taxes (FILOT) Ordinance which would have authorized the County to negotiate and execute a tax incentive agreement for the proposed House of Raeford’s $185 million chicken slaughterhouse and processing plant near Interstate 20’s Exit 22 (see Pages 6-41 of Council Agenda packet for full details of the Ordinance).

The Second Reading was not a Public Hearing where public comment is accepted; that process was tentatively scheduled for May 7th if the Second Reading of the Ordinance was approved.

The proposal also involved a controversial City of Aiken ordinance to allow for deep sewer and water rate discounts for the company. Aiken City Council put that process on hold while the County reached a decision.

The Second Reading of the FILOT Ordinance led to what was essentially a non-decision. After a Motion to Table that would have returned the Ordinance to a future meeting agenda, no Council member made a Motion to Approve (or Disapprove) the Ordinance. As a result, the Ordinance, as written, “died” and cannot return for at least one year.

When Chairman Gary Bunker was asked what the failure of a Motion to proceed meant, he responded by saying:

“It means it is dead as Marley’s ghost.”

(A video with low-quality audio of the Second Reading can be viewed here).

Chairman Bunker’s description of the lack of a Motion to move forward incited a roar of applause among the hundreds of people who packed County Chambers—as well as thousands of County residents who did not attend but heard the news within a few hours. (County Council still does not live stream its meetings or post the audio to its website).

The news was tempered somewhat by comments from Councilman Kelly Mobley, who was known to oppose the plant but had voted to table the Second Reading. Mr. Mobley explained that House of Raeford could still attempt to move forward without the proposed tax incentive.

Although not cited during the Second Reading, the primary reason for this rare, if not unprecedented, Council decision to allow a FILOT Ordinance to “die” was the issue of wastewater processing and permitting capacity, and the lack of sufficient allocation reserves for existing users. The wastewater issue was discussed during a Council Work Session that preceded the Public Meeting, but Council failed to share information from that Work Session during the meeting.

However, it was a topic of public discussion before the meeting; and in an April 16th letter (Figure 2) sent by Governor Henry McMaster to Chairman Bunker that was publicly released hours before the meeting. In his last minute intervention, McMaster urged Council to delay the process while his office sought financial help with the County’s wastewater capacity. Between McMaster’s controversial letter of interference in a local issue, and Councilman Mobley’s cautionary statements, any assumed finality of the project remains highly uncertain.

Heightened Public Awareness of Wastewater Management

Still, in the wake County Council’s decision, or lack thereof, management of Aiken County’s highly variable sewage streams that are processed at the Horse Creek Wastewater Plant (Figure 3) is now prominent in the public eye.

Aiken County citizens are now more fully aware that the capacity and physical condition of the county-owned Horse Creek Wastewater Plant (HCWP), which has allowed industrial and residential growth, is also a limiting factor for future growth across much of Aiken County; particularly the western, more urban half of this relatively vast county. In fact, at least one rumor is even circulating that a moratorium on capacity is imminent (1).

In short, citizens learned that County Council’s determination was that almost all present and future HCWP permitted capacity is already currently allocated, and the City of Aiken in particular is very close to reaching its capacity; only 300 to 500 thousand gallons of reserve capacity is believed to exist at HCWP. However, there has been an ongoing third-party audit of the HCWP capacity issues for nearly a year that could alter the equation.

As a result, the issue remains complex and not fully understood. This is reflected by a summary of the situation* by Chairman Bunker, who has a deep knowledge of the issues surrounding HCWP. In response to questions posed via email (2) on April 17th, he wrote that:

“Capacity is the total amount that the (wastewater) plant can process (20 millions gallons per day (MPD) while usage is what the plant normally processes in actuality (~12M gpd).

Aiken County is the wholesaler for the sewage capacity. It sells capacity to the “retailers” such as the City of Aiken, City of North Augusta, Breezy Hill, Valley (Public Service Authority) etc. As was discussed (during the April 16th Work Session) Aiken County only has a minimal amount (~0.3 to 0.5 MGPD) left to sell.

So in regards to HOR, the proposed plant was going to be located in the City of Aiken’s sewer district. So their usage would have gone against the City of Aiken’s capacity limit. Normally, we would assume that if the COA has a capacity of X, and a usage of Y, then the unused capacity would be ZX minus Y. So I assume the HOR was counting on the ability to use some of the Z unused capacity. Then the unused capacity would be Z (X minus Y). So I assume the HOR was counting on the ability to use some of the Z unused capacity.

Except that my understanding is that Z doesn’t exist – that this unused capacity has been committed by the City of a variety of other projects. So we need to add Z’ to the equation – the unused and uncommitted capacity. And evidently for the City this Z’ is a minimal value.

The irony of the HoR situation is that Aiken County has had an ongoing capacity audit underway since before the chicken plant became an issue. (3)

But as I told the Aiken Standard, even if this 6M gpd was magically made available last Tuesday evening, I doubt Council would have dedicated 1.7M gpd of this resource (nearly 30%) to a single user. The outcome would have remained unchanged.”

City of Aiken’s Currently Limited Capacity

The City of Aiken’s limited capacity issue was discussed during Aiken City Council’s September 11, 2023, worksession. The issue then was a request for a capacity transfer to Valley Public Service Authority for Turner Development’s proposed Weeping Willow residential development outside of North Augusta.

In that Work Session, the city’s utility department reported that the remaining allocated wastewater plant capacity was only 0.6 million gallons per day. (Figure 4)

The issue of plant upgrades and operations may eventually fade somewhat from the public eye, but in the short term will remain prominent.

This is because, although the FILOT Ordinance is dead and the City of Aiken has opted to not pursue its own water and sewer rate discount ordinance for HOR, the chicken plant project is far from dead. The issue could return in one year, if not earlier, as House of Raeford all but promised to continue its efforts in a divisive statement (Figure 5) made days after County Council opted to allow the tax incentive Ordinance to “die,” at least for one year.

Footnotes

(1) The extent of awareness was highlighted in part near the end of last night’s Aiken City Council meeting. At the 1:23:30 mark of the meeting, during the second “public comments on nonagenda items” period, Aiken resident Curt Hanna posed the question:

“I do have one question, and this is just ignorance, I just heard it today, is it true that there is a moratorium on sewer capacity as of Friday.”

City Manager Stuart Bedenbaugh responded by dismissing the existence of any such moratorium by citing and describing the ongoing audit.

(2) Email exchange regarding wastewater capacity issue:

4/17/24 Email sent to Chairman Bunker, Council, and Staff, which included Figure 1 above.

“Good Morning Chairman Bunker, 

I was prepared to make comments and ask general questions about the Horse Creek Plant and sewage allocations last night, but unfortunately was not called up to speak. The sewer capacity issue extends well beyond the HOR plant, and has been raised during City of Aiken (COA) residential development discussions. 

 During the work session last night the issue of Horse Creek Wastewater Plant (HCWP) capacity was discussed. My notes from the Work Session show that: 

1. The Horse Creek Wastewater Plant (HCWP) has a permitted capacity of 20 million gallons per day. 

Question: Is the County preparing to submit a permit amendment to DHEC to increase capacity to 26 MGD or more? Or has it already been submitted? 

2. HCWP currently processes 12-13 MGD. 

Is was unclear to me whether that is currently the maximum capacity due to physical constraints and that upgrades will allow for the full 20 million of permitted use, or if the upgrades will allow for 26 MGD of processing capability, as reported in this Aiken Standard story.  

A summary of work to date at gmcnetwork.com further states that: 

“GMC completed a study (Phase I) for the Horse Creek Pollution Control Facility and a design (Phase II) based on the findings of the study. This process provided a confident course of action for the utility. As a result of the project, the facility now has a primary design capacity of 26 MGD with a peak of 65 MGD and a secondary capacity of 20 MGD with a peak of 40 MGD, utilizing a 20-MG offline equalization basin.”

What is the current physical capacity, what is the anticipated permitted capacity, and will physical capacity match permitted capacity? 

3.  The 20 MGD of permitted use is currently allocated to the various water and sewer authorities: Aiken, North Augusta, Valley Public Service, Breezy Hill, New Ellenton (?), etc. 

 a. According to the September 25,  2023, Aiken City Council work session minutes, (pages 3-5 and screenshot below), the City of Aiken is allocated 7.4 MGD of the capacity and is using 6.8 MGD. (see below).   The same minutes state that Valley PSA is allocated 8.6 MGD. 

Question(s) Is it true that more than half of what HCWP currently processes derives from the COA sewer system? Will COA be granted an increased allocation proportionate to other users? 

(I have tried to obtain information on allocations since about that time from HCWP officials but was told the numbers would not be available until after an audit was completed).  

b.  The allocations are being reviewed by a third party auditor who is also auditing plant usage, capacity, and capacity allocations. 

c.  Brian Sanders stated that, at present,  300,000 to 500,000 of existing permitted capacity is excess capacity—it is not allocated to any party and could be “sold” to any of the districts. 

Question(s): Given the expected increase in HCWP capacity, Is the issue of the available capacity for a major user, HOR, primarily one of County capacity, or one of the City of Aiken’s allocated capacity? Are other service districts being constrained in any way by COA demands, and will COA capacity be raised much more than the 7.4 MGD currently allocated? 

I believe this issue is complex enough that the County should issue a white paper on the situation, one in Plain English and one that outlines the current and future limitations of the HCWP, especially as it affects future growth. The paper should also identify the expected operational life of the facility, a full accounting of recent upgrade costs, and the estimates of future maintenance and upgrade costs. 

Thank you, 

Don Moniak”

The response is shown below:

(3) When I requested capacity data from County officials in September 2023, the response was that an audit was underway and answers could not be provided until it was complete. It remains a work in progress.

* The following information was obtained on May 2, 2024: