About the Reedy River

The Reedy, Greenville's "hometown river", has been an important natural resource for hundreds of years, utilized and valued by people who have admired its scenic beauty and relied on its water for power, sustenance and inspiration. Greenville was originally founded on the banks of the Reedy, around the Reedy River Falls, in the 1760's. The Reedy was in the heart of the Cherokee hunting lands. Archaeological evidence of Cherokee villages has been found along its banks in present day downtown Greenville. The "Battle of the Great Canebrake" was fought along the Reedy's banks in 1775.

During the late 1800's and early 1900's, as local industries grew and the headwaters area became urbanized, the Reedy was utilized more for its ability to wash away the unwanted, rather than to provide a supply of water power. Discharges from the textile operations that made Greenville the national and international center of the textiles industry were discharged without treatment or concern during this period. After the 1920's the Reedy became the primary stream receiving sewage discharges and urban runoff from Greenville and its rapidly developing suburbs. Many Greenville residents recall the days as recent as the early 1980's when the Reedy ran a different color every day depending on the dyeing operations of the textile plants.

Greenville had literally turned its back on the Reedy by the early 1900's. The river was so foul until the 1970's that no one wanted any association with it, and it had become a corridor for decrepit industry, warehouses and brownfields. Thanks to the Federal Clean Water Act of 1972, and resulting improvements in industrial discharge permits to include wastewater treatment, water quality in the Reedy has substantially improved.

Our river suffered a catastrophic setback on June 26, 1996, when a pipeline owned by Colonial Pipeline ruptured near Fork Shoals, releasing over 1 million gallons of diesel fuel into the river, one of the largest inland oil spills in U. S. history. The headlines in the Greenville News in a full front-page story read, "Now They Call It The River of Death!". The resulting spill was devastating to the Reedy, essentially wiping out the entire food chain throughout a 23-mile stretch of the river. Mammals, waterfowl, and shorebirds dependent upon the riverine / riparian food chain were also affected, or at least temporarily extirpated from the Reedy corridor. This disastrous spill was particularly incredible because the reach of the Reedy, in southern Greenville and Laurens Counties, had previously been among the more healthy reaches of the Reedy.

Based on a sad history of environmental abuse we recognize that our hometown river, the Reedy, is "the historically most polluted river in South Carolina." Greenville's continuing dependence on the Reedy to discharge its wastes along with its increasing non-point source pollutants, assures that the river faces risks and challenges even today.