Anderson County, SC Environmental Rules: Stormwater Management (2026)

County Code § 24-757 enacts the stormwater management and sediment control article to protect water quality, prevent siltation of streams and lakes, prevent clogging of drainage channels, prevent excessive flood damage, and prevent damage to adjacent landowners' property, and to let the county meet its NPDES General Permit for Storm Water Discharges from Regulated Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems, Permit SCR030000, issued under the Clean Water Act and administered with DHEC. The article applies to all land in the county's jurisdiction, including incorporated areas whose municipality has an intergovernmental agreement with the county for stormwater services.

Section 24-874 makes it unlawful to connect to the county's small municipal separate storm sewer system (SMS4) without written permission, or to reconnect after a suspension for an illicit discharge, and § 24-873 lets the appropriate plan approval agency suspend SMS4 access without prior notice when a discharge presents an imminent danger to the environment or public health. Facility operators subject to industrial or construction stormwater discharge rules must give the county's inspectors ready access to sample, monitor and copy records under § 24-876, and § 24-877 requires anyone who discovers a release that may cause an illegal discharge to contain and clean it up and notify the county's public works stormwater management department in person, by phone or fax no later than the next business day, confirmed in writing within three business days, with on-site records kept for at least three years.

Enforcement runs through written compliance orders under § 24-878 requiring cease-and-desist, abatement, and restoration on a set deadline, with the county able to do the remedial work itself and bill the violator.