SURFSIDE BEACH, SC (WBTW) – People living in Surfside Beach said they smell sewage coming from a sewer pump station.
The town’s main pump station sits on Dogwood Drive North between 4th and 5th Avenue North. According to Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority, two other stations pump wastewater to it underground. Chemicals in a container on site are supposed to control the odor, but people who live nearby said it doesn’t seem to be working. “Have you walked by? I mean it stinks! It’s really bad,” said Inge Gentry. “Especially in the summer, you go as fast as you can to pass it.”
Gentry walks down Dogwood Drive every day and passes the sewer pump station along the way. “It smells like sewer. I don’t know how people can live or even go to the balcony in front. It’s really bad.” According to Surfside Beach Town Councilman Timothy Courtney, she’s not the only who thinks so. “A lot of complaints have been coming in from the community with regards to this.”
Courtney intends to discuss the issue at the town council meeting on Tuesday night. He said he spoke with Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority about the odor and unsightliness of the pump station. Before Hurricane Matthew the station was surrounded by brick and he wants the Water Sewer Authority to build that back. “We are a tourist community and again, our residents deserve to have this closed up. It’s not something that we want to walk by with our children and our families,” Courtney said.
Grand Strand Water and Sewer Authority Chief of Field Operations David Strickland says operators inspected the pump station after the town’s Public Works director contacted him about the complaints. Strickland said they plan to install a bigger carbon unit to treat the air and eliminate the odor. In the meantime, they will replace the carbon filters in the existing unit. As for the cause of the odor, Strickland said, “Because of not having the flow that runs through the sewer system this time of the year, that sewer gets more stagnant because it sits in the line.”
