Come PCBs or Ebola, Spartanburg Water Is Ready

Crisis management begins with a strong foundation. At Spartanburg Water, that foundation led the utility through a PCB contamination crisis and, later, made the utility a leader in Ebola preparation.

Jan 26, 2015 | by Steve Frank |

Spartanburg Water Fairforest Relcaimed W300 — In 2013, Spartanburg Water dealt with PCB contamination. Shown here is the Fairforest Reclaimed Water Treatment Plant, where the utility had to do a small scale cleanup of a storage tank that held PCB-tainted sludge.

“Do the right thing” is more than a platitude for our children. The concept has real, bottom-line consequences, which can carry a utility through crisis.At Spartanburg Water, which serves customers in northwestern South Carolina, that philosophy led the utility through a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) contamination problem in 2013 and established it as a leading agency during the Ebola crisis in 2014.The PCB crisis In June 2013, while Spartanburg Water profiled sludge for disposal in a landfill, tests showed positive results for PCBs. PCBS were once used as coolants and lubricants in transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment before being banned by

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