AIKEN, S.C. (AP) - Farmers and their neighbors opposing a massive potato farm that would draw billions of gallons of water from the Edisto River are feeling under attack as South Carolina’s most powerful agriculture lobby blasts what it calls “radical environmentalists.”
The South Carolina Farm Bureau this week launched a website and media campaign that blames “extremists” for unfairly targeting Walther Farms, a Michigan potato corporation with operations across the country, The State of Columbia reported (https://bit.ly/1iy00lY). The company received permission to draw up to 9 billion gallons of water from the river’s South Fork to irrigate its 3,700-acre potato farm.
Allowing so much water to be siphoned from the river could increase pollution and deplete the amount of water going into a Lowcountry nature preserve, opponents say. Many are conservative, lifelong residents of the Edisto River basin who contend they’re just trying to protect the waterway.
“I don’t think we are radical,” said Wayne Furtick, 73, a Springfield cattle farmer. “Most of the people opposed to this are good farmers and regular country people. They’re people who farm close to the river and enjoy time on the river.”
Many area residents who oppose the water withdrawals said they don’t object to Walther Farms building the state’s largest potato farm, but they are upset that state law doesn’t restrict massive water withdrawals for farms. A 2010 law allowed Walther Farms to locate in South Carolina without any public notice or in-depth study of how the withdrawals would affect wildlife in an area that contains the headwaters of the ACE Basin nature preserve.
State regulators said the initial withdrawals of more than 6 billion gallons of water a year would not hurt the river.
The Farm Bureau’s campaign aims to fight a bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston, that would more tightly control large river withdrawals by farms.
The Farm Bureau’s advertising campaign was intended to clear up misinformation about Walther Farms and raise awareness, spokesman Reggie Hall said. The potato operation followed the state law, which Hall said only took effect last year.
“I don’t see (the campaign) as attacking, I see it as presenting the truth,” Hall said. “It was designed to get people’s attention so that everybody will slow down long enough and talk through this issue before we see knee-jerk reactions in the law.”
The campaign’s web page urges South Carolinians to tell lawmakers they should favor farmers over radical environmentalists who would harm the state’s ability to grow crops.
“Extremists are attacking the Walther family farm in Aiken County to push their radical agenda,” according to one section of the web page, which says environmentalists are “waging war” on farming.
S.C. Wildlife Federation director Ben Gregg said environmental groups including his have not led the charge on the water issue.
A Jan. 7 meeting hosted by the Department of Health and Environmental Control to discuss the withdrawals drew about 350 people, including Murphy Lybrand, a Wagener goat farmer and commercial fisherman.
“I’m concerned about the air and water,” Lybrand, 48, said. “I don’t consider myself a radical environmentalist against agriculture.”
___
Information from: The State, https://www.thestate.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.