The board acted on the recommendation of the State and Local Government Affairs Committee, which reviewed the requests during its meeting at the International Builders’ Show in early January.
The Reedy River, a signature part of the Greenville, S.C., community is impaired by nitrogen. The Home Builders Association of Greenville and a community coalition together have addressed the issue with stormwater regulations and modernization of sewer treatment facilities. Coalition partners have aggressively opposed the state’s efforts to place a Total Maximum Daily Load regulation on nitrogen on the Reedy River. They support an alternative called 5R, a community-based, bottom-up plan to accomplish same result as a Total Maximum Daily Load regulation but without costly litigation. The board approved $20,000 to build an economic model to show community-based collations in Greenville and other HBAs how they can solve environmental impairment problems without Total Maximum Daily Load regulations and costly litigation.