Orangeburg County Council seeks to expand water project’s scope

Orangeburg County is asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expand the scope of the Lake Marion Regional Water Agency project.

The modification would allow the county to extend the project to include the placement of water lines along U.S. Highway 15 near Vance to Interstate 26 with the ability to interconnect with Holly Hill, Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young said.

The modification would also allow the construction of an elevated storage tank at the Pilot station at Interstate 26, Young said.

Young said the modification will also allow the extension of transmission lines in the lower part of Calhoun County to serve Cameron and rural areas of St. Matthews.

The modification would also extend the Harleyville reach to the Shady Grove community in Dorchester County from Interstate 95 to U.S. 178 and would also connect the St. George community near I-95 and U.S. 78.

The modification would also enable the project to receive more federal funds into the future. How much is not yet known.

Orangeburg County Council on Monday unanimously passed a resolution supporting the request for modification.

“The federal authorization originally was insufficient, so we requested an increase to do additional reaches,” Young said.

Currently, the Lake Marion Regional Water project has a number of reaches including the Santee, Elloree/Calhoun, Holly Hill, Wells Crossroad, Holly Hill to Harleyville, Dorchester, Winding Woods, Highway 27 to Camp Hall, Providence and Orangeburg County to Berkeley County.

“These reaches provide water to areas that were previously underserved,” Young said. “The modification was needed to go through the process so that Orangeburg, Calhoun, Berkeley, Dorchester and all counties who were a part of the Lake Marion Regional Water Authority will be able to improve public safety and ISO (Insurance Service Office) ratings and give sufficient water to their constituents.”

The Lake Marion Regional Water System was formed to help bring clean, quality water to parts of Berkeley, Calhoun, Dorchester and Orangeburg counties and the Town of Santee. Santee Cooper runs the water plant near Santee.