Dorchester Co. to spend around $200M to upgrade wastewater treatment plant

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester County will soon begin the process of a $200 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant in North Charleston.

People who live in Ridgeville, Summerville or in North Charleston are served by the plant on Landing Parkway, just off Dorchester Road.

County Administrator Jason Ward said they want to expand the plant to handle a future with more homes and industry.

Currently the plant treats up to 8 million gallons per day, and the first phase of this project will increase that to 10 million gallons per day. For perspective, that’s around 8,000 more homes that can be treated, according to Ward.

County council passed on first reading $65 million to help cover the first and second phases of the project, which calls for demolishing unused structures and piping built in the 1980s as well as some retrofitting.

After the final phase is complete, Ward said the plant will be able to double what it treats, up to 16 million gallons per day, which he said is enough to serve the county until 2050.

“I think one of the biggest challenges is you have these high rates of growth beyond what we had planned, and so it does push our schedule, so we are moving forward faster than we anticipated,” Ward said.

Ward said impact fees and rates will be going up for new construction in the county, but current property owners shouldn’t see a tax increase to pay for the project.

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