Water Damage Restoration in Pinopolis, SC

On June 8 at the Wampee Center in Pinopolis, Keith Gourdin, surrounded by friends, family and colleagues, was honored by S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster with the Order of the Palmetto, presented by state Sen. Larry Grooms.

The Order of the Palmetto is the state’s highest civilian honor, presented in recognition of a lifetime of significant achievements, service and contributions on a national or statewide scale. In order to receive the Order of the Palmetto, a citizen must be nominated. This once-in-a-lifetime award may only be presented to living natives or residents of South Carolina.

Gourdin was born in Berkeley County Hospital in Moncks Corner in 1939 and has lived in Pineville ever since, with the exception of his time spent in military school and college at Clemson and Auburn.

Through several occupational changes during his working life, Gourdin considers himself blessed to have had several close friends who helped train and shape him towards his successes. He believes that God put him in these various positions for a meaningful purpose, and his goal has always been to make the best of each opportunity.

In his professional life, Gourdin has worked for C.R. Bard Inc., Charleston County Emergency Preparedness and Gates Rubber Co.

Additionally, Gourdin has been a part of the American Society of Safety Engineers, Sons of the American Revolution and the Berkeley County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Other organizations and memberships Gourdin supports include the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, Historical Society of South Carolina, Lord Berkeley Conservation Trust, the Berkeley County Library System, Berkeley County Museum, Col. Hezekiah Maham Chapter, Berkeley County Historical Society, Williamsburg Historical Society and Museum in Kingstree, The Village Museum at McClellanville, First Families of South Carolina, Changed Life Ministries of Moncks Corner and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Most recently, Gourdin has turned much of his work to honoring and preserving local history. He contributes a weekly history column to The Berkeley Independent.

“I don’t know how I had time to work,” said Gourin. “There is just too much to do, too much to learn about my ancestry and lands.”

To help shine a light on history in the northern parts of Berkeley County, Gourdin and his wife formed a non-profit called Berkeley North Historical and Cultural Association. Berkeley North’s mission is the preservation and perpetuation of the county’s history, culture and heritage.

Several years ago, Gourdin struck out on his own to identify and map the American Revolution action sites in Berkeley County. He created the American Revolution in Present-Day Berkeley County Map, showing more than 30 action sites. Gourdin also compiled a book consisting of over 110 historical markers in and around Berkeley County that the government has made available to the public and prints as needed.

Outside of his professional, volunteer and historical endeavors, past hobbies of Gourdin’s include photography, learning how to fly, building and racing stock cars, motorcycles, go-karts, planting research tree plots as well as hunting and fishing.

When asked about his receiving such a revered award, Gourdin responded just as expected, with grace and humility.

“Helping people learn where they came from and how they got here (has been the most rewarding thing about working in Berkeley County and South Carolina),” said Gourdin. “We live in the greatest place in the world. Berkeley County history ... there’s much to tell, and so much yet to do ... today! Remember, God didn’t promise us tomorrow.”

“I don’t know exactly what they saw or heard that I was recognized with this award,” added Gourdin. “But they better not try to take it back! Before I go to bed tonight, it’ll be hanging, conspicuously, on the wall in my home.”

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCBD) – Members of the South Carolina United Methodist Church voted this week in favor of allowing 113 churches in the state – including 11 in the Lowcountry – to leave the denomination.

The churches that are leaving had concerns about the Book of Discipline not being enforced like prohibiting performing same-gender weddings and the ordination of “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”

The conference said these churches would be “closing” by the end of the month; rather the churches would be transferred to independent church entities and essentially leaving the United Methodist Church affiliation.

Pinopolis United Methodist Church is among that group – they are set to become Pinopolis Community Church beginning July 1.

“I’ve been a member of this church since 1994,” said Gene Kodama, a member of Pinopolis United Methodist Church. “I’ve been participating on what we call an organizational task force which was created to take a look at what was going on with the Methodist Church.”

Kodama said they became concerned about several issues including people in the LGBTQ community being ordained to serve in leadership roles at some United Methodist Churches – primarily on the west coast.

“The United Methodist Church in South Carolina and the South Carolina Conference, they have a book of discipline,” Kodama explained. “Who can be a minister, who cannot be a minister, and the way you conduct your affairs. There were some deviations from that.”

But the churches that are leaving had concerns about the Book of Discipline not being enforced.

“How do you achieve salvation? It’s a relationship with Jesus Christ that you are saved, and then you have salvation. And there were writings out there that said there were other ways to achieve salvation. And our church and others don’t agree with that,” he said.

Pinopolis United Methodist Church and 112 other churches out of more than 900 churches in South Carolina went through the process to leave the denomination. That includes paying a fee to purchase their church land from the denomination.

During the conference held in Florence on Tuesday, members voted to allow those churches to leave the denomination.

“We picked a new name for our church. We’re gonna call it Pinopolis community church,” said Kodama.

Despite the change, Kodama said they still welcome members of the LGBTQ community to their church.

“As far as those with alternative lifestyles, I think that’s one of the terms, we would love to have them here. We’d love to have you here. Everybody’s welcome here. The book of discipline specifically calls that out, that you can’t have leadership roles because of what scripture says about that lifestyle,” he explained.

Those 113 churches will officially separate from the United Methodist Church as of June 30.

Aldersgate in North Charleston will also continue serving its congregation and the community. Church leaders provided the following statement after Tuesday’s decision:

“Aldersgate will be continuing operation and associating with the Global Methodist Church. The operations of Holy City Missions and the Warming Shelter will not be affected. Nothing has changed in serving our community. All programs will be continuing as normal.”

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. – Santee Cooper’s Jefferies Hydroelectric Station has been generating electricity for 80 years. On Feb. 17, 1942, the station first generated electricity and continues today to provide clean, renewable energy to South Carolinians.

Santee Cooper hydropower has a strong connection to wartime efforts and rural electrification. In April 1934, Governor Blackwood signed a bill to create the South Carolina Public Service Authority, known as Santee Cooper, to construct two reservoirs (Lake Marion and Lake Moultrie) and a hydroelectric plant to serve the rural South Carolina population, which in turn would spark prosperity in the Depression-ravaged state.

Construction began in 1939. Just two years later, President Roosevelt named Santee Cooper’s Pinopolis Power Plant, now Jefferies Hydroelectric Station, a national defense project and accelerated its construction as America joined World War II.

When Jefferies began generating electricity in 1942, its first customer was Pittsburgh Metallurgical Co., a defense contractor in North Charleston that made ferrochromium, a key defense metal used to harden steel for ships and tanks. Santee Cooper later served the Charleston Naval Shipyard and the Charleston Naval Base and today still serves, Joint Base Charleston.

Along with the war effort, Santee Cooper supported the people of South Carolina.

“Santee Cooper was started along with a lot of other projects to pick up jobs for this country and, in particular, for South Carolina, to improve the quality of life for the residents overall. That is still the mission today,” said Jody Perry, a 39-year Santee Cooper employee who retired in 2018 as Superintendent of Operations at Jefferies.

Jefferies is named for Richard M. Jefferies, South Carolina governor from March 1942 to January 1943 and Santee Cooper’s General Manager for 21 years.

The Santee Cooper project became the nation’s biggest land-clearing effort and the largest federal Works Progress Administration project east of the Mississippi River during the New Deal. More than 12,500 workers toiled for 27 months, clearing swamps and woodlands, building dams and dikes, and constructing a powerhouse and navigation lock. The navigation lock at the Pinopolis Dam was itself a monumental construction. A 75-foot drop from Lake Moultrie to the Tailrace Canal, it was the highest single-lift lock in the world at the time.

With its giant gears and mammoth gates, the lock system would allow boats to travel from Columbia through the Santee Cooper Lake system and lock to the Cooper River and on to Charleston. Miles of dams and dikes were built to hold back the water for release through the turbines at the Pinopolis Power Plant.

The remarkable effort of constructing the massive Santee Cooper project was considered an engineering feat in its day, and more than 65,000 people from all over the country visited the site to marvel at its construction. From start to finish, it took a mere two years, two months and 22 days. What was created was one of South Carolina’s most resource-laden assets, an important source of energy, jobs and industrial development.

The hydro units can be brought online in about five minutes, making it an important source of reserve power and important in integrating intermittent renewables. Eighty years after it came online, Jefferies Hydro remains Santee Cooper’s most economical energy source.

“One of the reasons I think Jefferies has been around for 80 years is the people. We have an employee whose grandfather worked on the land clearing as a young teenager. When you have people like that, it’s personal to them. When they come to work every day, they understand the mission. They understand why this site is here. You see that in the work they provide,” said Carey Salisbury, Renewable Generation Manager.

Santee Cooper

Santee Cooper is South Carolina’s largest power provider, the ultimate source of electricity for 2 million people across the state, and one of America’s Best Midsize Employers as named by Forbes. Through its low-cost, reliable and environmentally responsible electricity and water services, and through innovative partnerships and initiatives that attract and retain industry and jobs, Santee Cooper helps power South Carolina. To learn more, visit www.santeecooper.com and follow #PoweringSC on social media.

CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Dam failures across South Carolina last month caused catastrophic damage, raising new questions for many Lowcountry residents.

A total of 36 dams statewide breached during last month's historic rainfall. Homes and businesses flooded, roads washed out, and many bridges weren't safe for travel.

In the aftermath come new worries: How many dams are here, how did we escape the damage and could the same thing happen to us?

Forty miles of dams and dikes surround Santee Cooper's Lakes Marion and Moultrie. It is Mark Carter's job to oversee them, keeping an eye on the inspection process and the weather, not just in the Lowcountry, but also in the upstate and parts of North Carolina. Rainfall there flows into Lake Marion.

"The lake system has a 15-thousand square mile drainage basin," Carter said as he took our crew to the Pinopolis Dam in Berkeley County.

To prevent catastrophe such as an overflow or dam break, water is released through the Santee Spillway to the Santee River. Carter said no water is routed toward Charleston because of the Pinopolis Dam.

"The potential for flooding on the Cooper River is almost non-existent because we can't release a significant amount of water here," Carter said.

Santee Cooper engineers inspect at least monthly. They've used stakes to mark some shallow slides caused by the historic rainfall.

"It saturated the soil and that water and that added weight causes the soil and water to slide down the hill," he said. Carter calls it maintenance, and repairs will prevent further erosion. "And grass can provide protective cover."

A backup dam built in the 1980s below the primary dam built in the 1940s serves as an earthquake safety measure. But no threat, he believes, is greater than another.

"Because the consequences of failure are very severe, and so from our point of view we try to look at all the threats and address them appropriately," Carter said.

There are three levels of inspections: year round by company engineers, an independent inspector every five years, and a yearly inspection by the federal government. While that federal report is classified, a government spokeswoman said the 2015 inspection in June found "No outstanding dam safety issues."

Santee Cooper plans to share its Emergency Action Plan for Dam Failure to residents living on the Santee River floodplain below the Santee North Dam. The company will explain what to do in the event of a dam failure at Sampit Elementary School in Georgetown on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

While that may ease your mind, don't relax just yet. There are more than two thousand dams regulated by our state, 86 percent of them are privately owned and maintained. They look more like grassy dikes than dams.

One of them is in a Moncks Corner subdivision, and at least one person who lives there said there is no dam in his neighborhood.

But the state government says there is, and considers it to have significant hazard potential. A high-hazard dam is only feet away from a major highway thousands of you travel every day. It is one of several state-regulated dams in the Lowcountry many of you may not know exist.

The Lowcountry is home to seven state regulated dams. Three are in Dorchester County and four are in Berkeley County.

One is in a Moncks Corner subdivision, but some people who live there have no idea it's classified C-2, having significant hazard potential.

The Moss Grove Plantation Dam was in "fair" condition when inspected last December, with the inspector noting it had been "neglected."

The Homeowner's Association president said bids are in hand to clear the vegetation, as outlined in a post-inspection letter. He said the dam had no issues during the record rainfall.

Whitesville Rural Fire Department Chief Timothy Stephenson said when most of us think of a dam breach, we think of catastrophic failure.

"But that's not what usually happens," he said. "Although we did have some levies or dikes that failed, they didn't actually fail at the dam or dike portion itself. They failed because of the erosion from the overflow of the water."

He said that happened at Compton Road, which runs atop Crystal Springs Lake Dam. While the dam didn't break during the historic rainfall in October, "The amount of rain overwhelmed the lake," Stephenson said. And through erosion, a water main broke, closing the road.

The Crystal Springs Lake Dam passed state inspection in November of 2014 with a satisfactory rating. That dam, the Moss Grove Plantation Dam and the Lake Hastie Dam in Pimlico in Berkeley County are classified C-2, having significant hazard potential.

A dam considered to have high hazard potential, classified as C-1, is just off Highway 61 at Middleton. Traveling Highway 61 daily are 7,700 vehicles according to the South Carolina Department of Transportation. A dam break could flood, even take out the highway, and that's why the Middleton Lake Dam carries the highest hazard rating.

"We take the responsibility seriously and DHEC does as well," Middleton's Colby Hollifield said.

DHEC, the Department of Health and Environmental Control oversaw construction of the Middleton Dam when it was rebuilt about ten years ago.

"We packed it with clay every six inches," Middleton's Josh Hair said. "It is a very solid wall of clay."

DHEC inspects it.

"They look for rodents, they look for large trees growing, so we keep it all mowed down, we like to have grass," Hollifield said.

A watershed drains into the lake from a mile around.

Video of the swamp during the historic rainfall showed water rushing toward Middleton Lake during October's deluge. Hollifield said the Friday before the storm, DHEC notified them to lower the lake level, if possible.

"So we opened the spill gates, we opened that up," he said.

Through the spill gates, the flow of water is controlled. The lake water is piped under the dam to the other side. Hollifield said during the storm, DHEC called constantly and he could hear conversations on the other end of the line.

"They almost didn't believe that it was working as well as it was, and so they kept asking, are you out there, have you seen it, how close is it to going over 61?" he said. No water flooded the highway there: the Middleton Lake Dam held. "It worked as designed here for sure," he said.

National dam experts say our state needs to fund more inspectors. While it costs money, they point out, the consequences of dam failure are far more expensive. Of the 36 dams that breached last month, 31 are regulated by the state, one by the federal government, and four others were unregulated dams.

For information on dam safety, check out the website www.livingneardams.org.

Copyright 2015 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Santee Cooper on Monday hammered the final nail into the coffin of the failed, $9 billion V.C. Summer nuclear construction project.

The state-owned utility’s board unanimously voted to cooperate with SCE&G’s efforts to give up the project’s hard-won federal license to build two more nuclear reactors at the massive Fairfield County site. The move makes it a virtual impossibility that the project ever could be finished.

Instead, Santee Cooper will work to sell or scrap the trove of nuclear parts and equipment left unused in July 2017, when the Moncks Corner-based utility and Cayce-based SCE&G indefinitely suspended construction on the overbudget and overdue project.

At the time, Santee Cooper officials publicly held out hope the project could be completed one day, perhaps a decade or more down the road if a different regulatory, political or economic environment made nuclear power production more practical.

SCE&G has been trying to give up the federal operating license for more than a year, part of that utility’s efforts to show it fully has abandoned the project and deserves hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits.

But, last January, Santee Cooper asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold off on approving SCE&G’s request to terminate the license, saying it wanted time to evaluate its options, including another utility finishing the project.

Santee Cooper searched the world for more than a year but could find no company interested in buying and finishing the Summer project, agency staff told the utility’s board Monday. To keep the license, Santee Cooper would need to spend millions to dollars more to show the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the utility has the ability to finish and operate the unfinished plant, staff said.

“There are going to be immediate, significant expenditures if we continue the license,” Santee Cooper general counsel Michael Baxley said.

Santee Cooper board chairman Charlie Condon agreed. “These licenses really have no value to us. In fact, they have the exact opposite.”

Because SCE&G and its new owner, Virginia-based Dominion Energy, have relinquished all claims to the Summer site, Santee Cooper will pocket 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of any equipment that is salvageable, a spokeswoman for the agency said Monday.

Santee Cooper can use the money to help pay off its $4 billion in nuclear construction debt.

The state agency’s customers each are paying about $5 a month toward that debt now, a figure expected to rise to $13 a month for the next four decades.

Meanwhile, Santee Cooper must pay to protect and preserve the parts for a possible sale.

In February, Santee Cooper told the governor it would pay about $19 million a year to preserve the nuclear parts – potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars – and to continue leasing two massive warehouses full of unused equipment.

This story was originally published January 28, 2019, 11:56 AM.