Additional pollutants are a particularly bad idea for the Cooper River. We're already over-stressing a very important natural system. Early in 1999, Senators McConnell and Ravenel introduced a bill that simply reversed last year's damaging legislation. So the senators put their heads together and came up with an offer that, in the end, the Cooper River Association could not refuse. Last year's legislation allowed industries to discharge additional pollutants into rivers that are naturally low in dissolved oxygen, a critical component of clean, healthy water.
Pollutants tend to lower the level of dissolved oxygen.
This, in turn, can devastate aquatic life. The theory was, however, that in rivers naturally low in dissolved oxygen, lower levels of this substance would not matter. Last year's legislation did require industry to convince DHEC that the river was naturally low in dissolved oxygen, and that the additional discharges would not harm aquatic life. The senators' bill, therefore, requires industries to make their case to DNR, which is charged with managing our state's aquatic resources and which has considerable expertise in these matters. Initially this appealed to the Cooper River industries, and promises were made all around that they would support the senators' bill.