Lake Conestee

Parts of Lake Conestee Nature Preserve reflect the tranquility and marshy land that once stood on the river banks. But underneath, there is a hidden danger.

Up to the mid-1800s white settlers in the South sent the raw cotton to New England for weaving and spinning; however, in 1840 a man named Vardry McBee set out to change this. Knowing the swift flow of water in this area and the backcountry grist mills, he began making textile and paper mills, and selling land to other developers to do the same. Although the transition from cotton farming to textile mills was slow at first, between 1890 and 1915 the number of textile mills and supporting mill villages upstream of Lake Conestee increased from two to over twelve, all of which dumped their waste directly into the Reedy River.

In May of 1925 the stench, waste, and sedimentation had become so intolerable that Thomas Charles, the Conestee mill president, sued the City of Greenville for polluting the Reedy River and Conestee Lake. The case dragged out for six years and even went to the Supreme Court twice! During the process, ground was broken for a new sewage system, “the most modern in the world,” costing Greenville about two million dollars. As a result, the U.S. Health Service named the city and county of Greenville the healthiest place in the United States in 1928, despite the still severe pollution of the Reedy River and Conestee Lake (Attorneys & Law in Greenville County: A History).

Conestee Mills v. City of Greenville of 1931 marked one of the first environmental law cases in the nation, let alone one of the first landmarks in the fight to clean South Carolina rivers. The lake seems exactly as you would expect, and yet Lake Conestee holds more than two million tons of sediment that has been polluted by toxins and heavy metals, all due to the city of Greenville’s pre-regulated operations.

Sometimes lakes "invert," meaning that the sediment on the bottom rises to the top. Similarly, the dam may one day break. Either way, all of that toxic pollution could be re-released into the environment, ruin the drinking water of millions downstream, and become an environmental nightmare for the fish, amphibeans, birds, and wetland creature that call it home.

It will be a task for us to try to clean up this water for future generations. Cherokee people have been here for centuries and know what it was like to peacefully co-exist with nature. Hopefully our generation will be the one who dedicates to fixing these problems as best we can, so we do not take away this essential resource to all life.

Suggested Readings:

Bainbridge, Judith T. Attorneys & Law in Greenville County: A History. History Press, 2015.

“City considers annexation of Lake Conestee Nature Park.” Greenville Journal.

“Conestee Mill Histroical Recognition.” National Parks Service.

“Conestee Mills v. City of Greenville, 158 S.E. 113 (S.C. 1931)” Supreme Court of South Carolina.

“Lake Conestee Nature Park History.” Lake Conestee Nature Park.

Marsh, Blanche and Marsh, Kenneth. The New South: Greenville SC. R.L Bryan Co. 1965.