Pollution costs money.
The river is a major draw in West Columbia and a river-tubing business lost hundreds of customers last week because of the the Carolina Water Service sewage spill.
“We closed from Wednesday until Saturday,” said Michael Mayo, owner of Palmetto Outdoor Center. It offers river-tubing rides down the lower Saluda River, ending at the Gervais street Bridge. By Sunday, the part of the river of Palmetto Outdoor uses was operational for tubing.
The Department of Health and Environmental Control issued a no-swim advisory June 21, because of high bacteria counts in the Saluda Shoals Park area. Carolina Water Service’s poor sewage treatment was the culprit.
For river-users, the spillage came at a bad time.
“This is usually a big weekend for us,” said Katie Maglocci, Palmetto Outdoor Center’s operations manager. She said river enthusiasts are really getting into the swing of summer by the third week of June.
Mayo said his business lost as many as 200 river-tubing customers on Saturday alone.
“Some of them are coming from Charlotte, Charleston, Atlanta. Not only are they not on the river, they are not staying in the hotels and motels. They are not eating in the restaurants. So you lose that revenue from accommodations,” said Mayo. He said – based on the data he keeps – probably 100 of the customers not on the river Saturday would have been from out-of-town.
Maglocci and Mayo said the business closed for five days and the reputation of the lower Saluda is hurt by the stigma of being contaminated.
“We have people call and ask, and we have to tell them,” said Mayo.
In addition to the loss of weekend traffic, Mayo said the business from another couple-hundred tubers was lost on the weekdays of Wednesday Thursday and Friday. He said about 25 percent of those river-users come from out of town.
Despite the spill, Mayo, who began his business in 2006, said he could have been worse. He said a spill in 2008- was worse than last week’s contamination.