It’s Water Festival once again, the 53rd community celebration of our Beaufort River.

But what if we didn’t have the Beaufort River to celebrate? What if we had to stand on the banks of the bluff and look out at contaminated water with dead animals and human waste floating by? What if it was as polluted as the King River in Australia or the Sarno River in Italy, listed by the American Rivers organization as the most polluted rivers in the world?
Consider these facts:

- 40 percent of America’s rivers are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.

- 400 water points around the state were posted this spring by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control with advisories warning people not to swim there or eat fish caught in those waters.

- 1.2 trillion gallons of untreated sewage, stormwater and industrial waste are discharged into U.S. waters annually. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has warned that sewage levels in rivers could be back to the super-polluted levels of the 1970s by 2016.

Lots of folks don’t realize that the Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority discharged treated wastewater (that’s a nice name for sewage) into the Beaufort River, as well as on area golf courses. But the discharge only takes place after considerable treatment and the results are monitored regularly.

- The most polluted rivers in the world are in Asia, where monitoring shows bacteria from human waste three times higher than the global average. Water from half of China’s seven major rivers is declared undrinkable because of pollution. Think they’ll be talking about that grim statistic during the upcoming summer Olympics in Beijing?

No, we’re pretty lucky to have the water quality we do here in the Lowcountry but it didn’t come easily. Back in the 1970’s, oyster beds were being closed by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control because of runoff pollution from the development that was occurring along our waterfronts.

Some citizens were concerned that a day would come when we couldn’t swim in the river or eat fish, shrimp and crabs caught there if regulations weren’t put in place to try to curb the pollution. The state, county and municipalities passed ordinances restricting how close you could build a house to the water and how much uncovered surface you must have on a lot to promote natural filtration of runoff and rainwater.

Septic tanks are still a concern for those keeping an eye on potential pollution but more and more areas of the county are getting public sewer systems, replacing the individual septic tanks which tend to malfunction and lead to more pollution.

Yes, we’re lucky to have a relatively clean Beaufort River to celebrate this 53rd year of Water Festival. The festival has changed a lot over the years, just like the river. What started out as a sailboat race, parade and beauty pageant has grown into “something for every one” from bocce tournaments to sky divers to antique shows to concerts and talent shows.

But one piece of local advice still holds true. If you’re out there on that sand bar, enjoying your friends and refreshments, and you feel a warm spot of water, step away quickly. In some ways, it’s still a big sewer out there.