City leaders work to solve waste overflow in West Ashley neighborhood

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — Charleston city leaders and the Charleston Water System are working to solve repeated issues with waste overflow in one West Ashley neighborhood.

Wednesday night they presented a plan to residents who’ve been having issues with drainage for years.

“I was walking with my kids and there was a puddle on the street and my youngest whose 21 months old she was jumping in the puddle and all of a sudden I was like is this even ok for her being to being playing in the puddle.” said Anna Schlimme, a resident.

The Charlestowne Estates neighborhood is located at the bottom of a hill and because of this experiences significant flooding, especially along Donahue Drive. After heavy rainfall during tropical storm Debby, wastewater and sewage matter littered the streets and people’s yards.

Officials with the Charleston water system say, even a small amount of water can overwhelm the current infrastructure

“For about the last 20 years we’ve had challenges on Donahue drive the rainfall events the 3 or 4 inches leads to an overflow,” said Mike Saia, the Public Information Officer with Charleston Water System.

The water system says they are working to find and fix the weak points. They use cameras to monitor problems and are planning millions of dollars worth of improvements in the coming years

“We’ve worked very hard and poured millions and millions of dollars into this issues and still haven’t resolved it’s probably going to take 150 million dollars more maybe between two and five years to resolve. So, we want to get the community updated we want help them set expectations and timeline and answer any questions,” said Saia.

Residents are hopeful meetings like this will lead to a meaningful solution

“I learned a lot I didn’t know much about how the sewer system worked and the relationship between the storm water and the overflow and it filled in a lot of gaps, I didn’t know how the system was set up,” said Schlimme.

Charleston Water System asks that anyone who has a sewage issue report it to here.