BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. — The Edisto Riverkeeper said he received a call Monday night from a resident about what appeared to be trash in the river. What he found was unexpected.
"I realized that it wasn’t just a normal littering call,” Hugo Krispyn said.
Krispyn, the Edisto Riverkeeper, said he's never seen such a large number of animal remains in the river.
“Somebody had dumped, looked to me like several hundred dead old chickens off the side of the bridge and the water level he had," he said. "Then they got hung up on a couple of these logs that extend across the river downstream of here. Since then, the water level has dropped, so most of them have drifted downstream from where they were.”
Krispyn said he immediately reported this to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and the South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) has now taken over the investigation.
"This morning, SCDES agricultural compliance staff reached out to the poultry integrators that serve the area, and they stated that no facilities in that area had experienced a mass die-off," environmental services officials said. "They also shared that feed at commercial facilities is not provided in bags but delivered in bulk and stored in silos. This could indicate the chickens could potentially be from a smaller, noncommercial operation.”
The riverkeeper said he didn't feel comfortable removing the chickens from the river because of the large biohazard and the amount of them.
“I cannot imagine any circumstances that somebody who is producing poultry had that would lead to any better outcome by committing a crime and dumping those animals into the Edisto River,” Krispyn said.
The river is a source of water for surrounding counties. That said, the riverkeeper advises staying out of the water for the time being.
“I'm not aware of any advisory being issued so far," he said. "Knowing what I know, I am not eager to recreate -- in and downstream of this spot for a few miles -- until there's a reasonable expectation that nature has done what nature does and taking care of the problem."
Krispyn reminded the community this type of activity is illegal.
“Help us find who did this," he said. "Let's bring awareness and coverage to this so it doesn't happen again. This is an entirely gratuitous assault on the health and environmental safety of the entire river."
SCDES said commercially regulated facilities are required to have a means of disposal for dead birds, both for routine deaths and mass die-offs. These are most commonly utilized onsite.