In Laurens County’s history, certainly there have been times when the temperature sank to 7 degrees. But was it at Christmas? And was it at a time when a utility just a few months before put a multi-million dollar water treatment plant into full operation?
The answer to the second question is “no” - never before had a Laurens County Lake Greenwood water treatment plant been responsible for keeping the water flowing through a low temperature of 7 degrees.
Until Christmas, 2022.
That posed a lot of challenges to the Laurens County Water and Sewer Commission. These - and the lessons learned - were outlined Jan. 25 to the utility’s board of directors by Jeff Field, general manager; Damas Mattison, regulatory compliance and operations and manager; and K.C. Price, engineering manager.
Technicians spent Christmas-time going from house to house, leak to leak, to assist with getting water turned off, in addition to keeping a wary eye on their own lines. Gauges at water tanks can show when there is a spike in water-used - that generally means a line somewhere in the LCWSC’s far-flung system is leaking.
No “giant” leaks happened in the utility’s system. But pipes were breaking all over the county - none as dramatic as some Upstate businesses and government offices that were completely flooded. Water users generally kept a trickle from an outside pipe - the width of a pencil is advised - going throughout the weather crisis. That kept the water moving. Yes, it led to higher than normal water bills - which can be problematic for people on fixed incomes - but LCWSC has an adjustment policy for users whose water bill doubles.
Before the projected sub-freezing weather, LCWSC posted to social media a guide to keeping pipes from freezing.
Still, Field said, “It’s hard to prepare for 7 degrees.”
“You don’t know what you don’t know until you’re put in that situation.”
Technicians worked 16 - 18 hour days Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to combat “leaks that customers were having,” Field said. It was the utility’s highest demand time, outstripping summer when demand spikes because of outside irrigation.
The effect will show up at this month’s board meeting - the “water-sold” graphic will reflect a spike.
“We pulled some water from Greenville (for Northern Laurens County) and they were having the same issues,” Field said. The company that staffs the water technicians at the Lake Greenwood Water Treatment Plant has clients all over the Southeast, and all their people were out at water plants that were freezing over from Texas to South Carolina.
LCWSC is thankful that it avoided a “boil-water advisory” on Christmas, Field said.
Still, all was not rosy at the water treatment plant itself - the company that built it sent out a technician to unfreeze a critical pipe and the catwalks were icy and treacherous.
The plant is on Hwy 221 South, between Laurens and Greenwood.
Freezing weather does weird things to lakes, so the water quality coming from Lake Greenwood had to be constantly monitored. Production had to be ramped up to its highest level yet - but not to the highest possible level - to keep up with demand; that means more chemicals and more electricity.
“With demand on the system you see reliance on pumps. That’s when people see (water) pressure situations,” Field said. “That can lead to boil-water situations. Thank God we didn’t have to do a boil-water advisory on Christmas Day. Thankfully, we had our water plant (and) The City of Clinton was there to help us with Joanna (in Eastern Laurens County).
“Our people did a tremendous job.”
The Lake Greenwood Water Treatment Plant pumped 14,650,590 gallons more during this 6-day timeframe than normal operations, the LCWSC board was told.
“We were running wide open,” Price said.
Dec. 24, 2022 set temperature records in the Upstate with an average temperature during the day of 17.5 degrees.
“We’ve never run that fast for that long,” Price said of the water plant, which had its groundbreaking on Nov. 14, 2019.
The plant was working at a high level even into Jan. 3, 2023, he said.
In the aftermath, LCWSC was dealing with rate adjustment requests - 79 totaling $14,078 for January, 2023. The utility can tell if more water is moving than normal through 927 cell meters - 390 in Gray Court alone, as LCWSC has operated the town’s water system for about a year now. The cell meters cost more than regular drive-by meters but they are really efficient in signaling bad leaks.
“We are going to learn and grow and get better from this,” Field said.
An after-action review produced a list of 9 “Lessons Learned” that was shared with the utility’s board. In addition, LCWSC will learn how to de-ice at the water plant and how to house technicians overnight, so they are not risking the drive to and from home in sub-freezing weather. At a time when it wasn’t as cold, the water plant played host to the Preserving Lake Greenwood group - they were expecting about a handful of visitors, but about 30 showed up for the tour of the plant, which is funded primarily through a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development loan.
Proudly, Field said, “The water plant is less than a year old and it performed through this event in its first year.”
More about LCWSC at their website.
