Mobile Home Sales in S. Sumter, SC

Another SEC showdown is looming at the league tournament this week between undefeated No. 1 South Carolina and one-loss, No. 4 LSU.

The teams met on Super Bowl Sunday in a highly anticipated game featuring two of the game's biggest stars in reigning AP player of the year Aliyah Boston for the Gamecocks and the Tigers' Angel Reese.

South Carolina shut down Reese - it was her only game this season without double figures in both points and rebounds - in an 88-64 victory.

The tournament opens in Greenville, South Carolina, on Wednesday. The top four seeds - South Carolina (29-0), LSU (27-1), No. 3 Tennessee (21-10) and No. 4 Mississippi (22-7) - don't play until Friday. The semifinals will be Saturday, with the championship and the NCAA Tournament's automatic bid at stake on Sunday.

The February beatdown by South Carolina left LSU coach Kim Mulkey a bit humbled. "It's South Carolina, in my opinion," she said, "and everyone else."

At the moment, Mulkey has a much more modest goal for tournament play in her second year at LSU.

"I've never won an SEC Tournament game as a coach," said Mulkey, whose team lost its opener a season ago to eventual champion Kentucky. "So our goal is to win one more in the SEC Tournament than we've done since this staff has been here."

The Gamecocks have their own motivation from a year ago. South Carolina was heavily favored to win its seventh tournament crown in eight seasons. Instead, Kentucky rallied from eight points down in the fourth quarter for a 64-62 victory.

The Gamecocks haven't lost in 35 games since, including a run to the 2022 national title.

South Carolina leading scorer Zia Cooke says that defeat is in the past and there's no reminders or rallying cry.

"I think what happened last year is what happened last year," she said. "We've moved on."

Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley, whose team wrapped up its seventh regular-season SEC championship in the past 10 seasons, has seen her team step up to each challenge this year and doesn't expect that to change.

"I know this team understands the path that's in front of them," Staley said. "They stay current with that, so I can only feel good about what they've done."

ANYONE ELSE?

There are six other 20-win teams in the SEC this season: the Lady Vols, Rebels, Mississippi State (20-9), Alabama (20-9), Georgia (20-10) and Arkansas (20-11). That group is a combined 0-14 against South Carolina and LSU this season.

SEC PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Boston bested Reese for SEC player of the year, the conference announced Tuesday. Boston won the honor for the second straight year. She also earned her second nod as defensive player of the year. Boston and Reese, who leads the SEC in scoring (23.7 points a game) and rebounding (16) this season, were both named to the All-SEC first team.

DEFENDING TOURNAMENT CHAMPS

It would be an even bigger surprise if Kentucky won a second straight SEC Tournament title. The Wildcats enter as the 14th and last seed after going 10-18 and 2-14 in SEC play. This team lost centerpiece player Rhyne Howard to the WNBA and had 10 newcomers on their opening roster.

POSTSEASON PATH

It can't get much easier, at least logistically, this postseason for No. 1 South Carolina. The SEC Tournament is in the first of a three-year run in Greenville, about a two-hour drive from the Gamecocks' campus. The first two rounds of the NCAAs almost surely will be on South Carolina's home floor. Should the Gamecocks advance to the Sweet 16, they most likely will return to Greenville for a chance to get to a third straight Final Four. That will require a flight to Dallas.

ESPN GAMEDAY

The network will locate its "College GameDay" program at the SEC Tournament site this Sunday. It's the last of three stops the program made to women's basketball games, going to UConn's game with Tennessee in Knoxville on Jan. 26 before going to Iowa City for the Indiana-Iowa game last Sunday.

A boy from Sumter suffered a stroke during a typical day at school. Now, his family wants others to learn from this situation.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Friday afternoon, a 13-year-old Furman Middle School student sat in his hospital bed asking for chicken nuggets and Gatorade - just 11 days after a stroke.

On Feb. 6, Daniel went to school like any normal day. He said he wasn't feeling well, and went to the front office of Furman Middle School to call his mom. At this point, his speech was slurred and he couldn't talk on the phone.

The staff in the front office asked his mother, Jennifer Lynch, to come to pick him up. Jennifer said that when she arrived she had to help her son to the car because he was weak and limp on his right side.

She took him home and let him sleep before sending him to Prisma Health Tuomey Hospital in Sumter. Since then, Lynch says the past week has been unnerving for her family.

"We didn't expect a 13-year-old to ever go through this," she said.

Doctors said he suffered a five-centimeter aneurysm which caused him to have what is called a hemorrhagic stroke, something most adults do not survive.

Daniel's grandparents Rhonda and Charles Ahtonen said they want this situation to be a learning experience for others.

"We hope that some other parent or grandparent won't have to go through what we went through," Charles said. "That's all we're trying to do is help that next kid that comes into the office and is having difficulty so they know exactly what they need to do."

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We reached out to the Sumter School District to see if employees are trained to deal with these situations.

They sent back this statement that said:

"MERT teams are available at our schools to assist with medical emergencies that are common in children. Since this was so unique, additional training will take place next week to help ensure school staff is able to identify signs and symptoms of a stroke."

Daniel is slowly improving, cracking jokes and asking for donuts - even after a lengthy surgery to put a filter on his artery to prevent the blood clot from moving any further.

His right arm is not moving but he can move his right leg now, and his family is hoping that, with more physical therapy, he'll have regular use of these limbs again.

Once he is ready, Daniel's family said he will be transferred to a rehab center in Charlotte.

SIGNS OF A STROKE

It's important to recognize the signs of a stroke. Fortunately, there is a common mnemonic device to help remember some of the most common symptoms: FAST

F: Facial Drooping

A: Arm Weakness

S: Speech Difficulty

T: Time to call 911

The South Carolina High School League basketball state championship games for 2023 are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at USC Aiken’s Convocation Center.

Here are the matchups that have been set so far, with the Class 5A semifinals still set for Monday

——Thursday——

Class 4A Girls: Westwood vs. North Augusta, 5 p.m.

Class 4A Boys: Irmo vs. Lancaster, 7 p.m.

——Friday——

Class 3A Girls: Camden vs. Wren, noon

Class 3A Boys: Crestwood vs. Wren, 2 p.m.

Class 2A Girls: Bishop England vs. Gray Collegiate, 5:30 p.m.

Class 2A Boys: Oceanside Collegiate vs. Gray Collegiate, 7:30 p.m.

——Saturday——

Class A Girls: Military Magnet vs. Denmark-Olar, noon

Class A Boys: Scott’s Branch vs. Christ Church, 2 p.m.

Class 5A Girls: Spring Valley/Mauldin vs. Sumter/Stratford, 5:30 p.m.

Class 5A Boys: Conway/Goose Creek vs. Lexington/Dorman, 7:30 p.m.

THE ADDRESS: 2049 Champion Way, Graniteville, SC 29829

TICKETS: $15, can be purchased at gofan.co or through each of the schools before game day.

TV: All 10 games will be carried on Sinclair Broadcasting stations across South Carolina. Affiliates are WMYA (My40 Asheville-Greenville), WACH (57.2/1250/Columbia), WCIV (MyTV Charleston) and WWMB (CW21, Florence/Myrtle Beach).

INTERNET: All 10 games will be streamed on www.nfhsnetwork.com. A subscription ($11.99) is required.

RADIO: The Camden-Wren girls game will be carried on KOOL 102.7.

Games at Bob Jones University in Greenville; winners advance to state championship games

Friday

Class 2A Girls: Gray Collegiate 46, Keenan 38

Class 2A Boys: Gray Collegiate 72, Keenan 66

Class 4A Girls: North Augusta 58, Wade Hampton 50

Class 4A Boys: Lancaster 58, Greenville 50

Saturday

Class A Girls: Denmark-Olar 52, St. Joseph’s 38

Class A Boys: Christ Church 55, Great Falls 27

Class 3A Girls: Wren 43, Southside 32

Class 3A Boys: Wren 63, Travelers Rest 41

Monday

Class 5A Girls: Mauldin vs. Spring Valley, 5:30 p.m.

Class 5A Boys: Lexington vs. Dorman, 7:30 p.m.

Games at Florence Center in Florence; winners advance to state championship games

Friday

Class 2A Girls: Bishop England 39, Andrew Jackson 38

Class 2A Boys: Oceanside 75, Andrew Jackson 38

Class 4A Girls: Westwood 52, AC Flora 37

Class 4A Boys: Irmo 54, Hartsville 38

Saturday

Class A Girls: Military Magnet 60, Lake View 46

Class A Boys: Scott’s Branch 64, Estill 56

Class 3A Girls: Camden 50, Lower Richland 24

Class 3A Boys: Crestwood 66, Orangeburg-Wilkinson 62

Monday

Class 5A Girls: Sumter vs. Stratford, 5:30 p.m.

Class 5A Boys: Conway vs. Goose Creek, 7:30 p.m.

All games at the Sumter Civic Center

Friday

Class 3A Girls: Hilton Head Christian 67, Shannon Forest 38

Class 3A Boys: Hilton Head Prep 39, Hilton Head Christian 21

Saturday

Class A Girls: Cambridge Academy 41, Laurens 34

Class A Boys: Faith Christian 54, Richard Winn 40

Class 2A Girls: Cathedral 68, Beaufort Academy 33

Class 2A Boys: St. John’s 55, Cathedral Academy 52

Class 4A Girls: Heathwood Hall 79, Northwood 49

Class 4A Boys: Augusta Christian 47, Cardinal Newman 44

This story was originally published February 25, 2023, 9:43 PM.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - Zia Cooke scored 19 points and Kierra Fletcher had 15 as No. 1 South Carolina spoiled Tennessee's pack-the-paint strategy in a 73-60 victory Thursday night.

The Gamecocks (28-0, 15-0 Southeastern Conference) clinched at least a tie for the regular-season conference title.

"We're blessed," South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. "We're a low-maintenance, high-performance team. Can't ask for more than that."

The Lady Volunteers (20-10, 12-3) jammed the middle, trying to limit opportunities for star Aliyah Boston and daring the Gamecocks to beat them from the perimeter. Boston finished with 11 points.

"(Boston) is a high-level IQ basketball player," Staley said. "She doesn't force things. She always makes the right basketball play."

Fletcher and Cooke combined to hit 5 of 8 3-pointers. The Gamecocks dominated the rebounding 48-34, with 20 of them on the offensive glass. Kamilla Cardoso had 15 boards and Brea Beal had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Sixteen of those offensive rebounds came in the first half.

"South Carolina ... is a load," said Tennessee coach Kellie Harper. "No one's been able to crack them this year."

"We had some schematic issues in the first half," she said. "We'd have people sag off (on defense) but not box out."

Rickea Jackson scored 21 points for Tennessee, which led 19-10 after the first quarter. Jordan Horston had 14 points and 11 rebounds and Karoline Striplin added 11 points.

Nine straight third-quarter points, five by Fletcher, turned a close game into a double-digit difference.

South Carolina had a 17-point run in the second quarter as it rallied from 10 down to later take a 33-29 halftime lead. Cooke scored eight straight points in that stretch.

The Lady Vols were held scoreless for more than 6 minutes before Striplin hit a 3-pointer just before the break.

"It takes a little bit of time," Staley said of figuring out the Lady Vols' strategy. "It takes time to figure out where the holes are. We had to maintain our defense."

The Gamecocks went the final 4:44 of the first quarter without scoring as Tennessee built a nine-point lead.

"We lost our pace in the second quarter," Harper said. "We got some offensive rebounds and looked so excited to get them."

POLL IMPLICATIONS

South Carolina: The Gamecocks have been on top of the poll for 35 weeks, while winning 33 straight games. That's third-most all-time behind UConn (51 weeks) and Louisiana Tech (36). Sunday's overtime escape from Mississippi State cost South Carolina one No. 1 vote this week, keeping the Gamecocks from being a unanimous selection for the first time all season. No. 2 Indiana got the one vote.

Tennessee: The Lady Vols have now lost to each of the top five teams in the poll. That statistic makes it easy to understand how they have to toughest schedule in the country.

BIG PICTURE

South Carolina: Since 1981-82, the NCAA Tournament era, only nine teams have had unbeaten seasons. UConn has done it six times and Baylor, Tennessee and Texas have done it once. Ten of the 14 players on the Gamecocks' roster are at least 6 feet tall.

Tennessee: Despite having three conference losses, the Lady Vols have locked up a double-bye for the SEC Tournament. Horston came into the game with 427 assists, two behind Kristen Clement for No. 10 all-time in the Tennessee record book. Tennessee junior Tess Darby has been named to the SEC Community Service Team for her involvement in a service trip to Rwanda through the university.

UP NEXT

South Carolina: Georgia will visit South Carolina on Sunday. Earlier this year, the Gamecocks beat the Bulldogs by 17 points.

Tennessee: The Lady Vols will close out their regular-season schedule at Kentucky on Sunday. The two teams have not met this season.

Climate change isn't causing the multi-year drought that is devastating parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Bolivia, but warming is worsening some of the dry spell's impacts, a new study says.

The natural three-year climate condition La Nina - a cooling of the central Pacific that changes weather worldwide temporarily but lasted much longer than normal this time - is the chief culprit in a drought that has devastated central South America and is still going on, according to a flash study released Thursday by international scientists at World Weather Attribution. The study has not been peer reviewed yet.

Drought has hit the region since 2019 with last year seeing the driest year in Central Argentina since 1960, widespread crop failures and Uruguay declaring an agricultural emergency in October. Water supplies and transportation were hampered, too.

"There is no climate change signal in the rainfall," said study co-author Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College in London. "But of course, that doesn't mean that climate change doesn't play an important role in the context of these droughts. Because of the extreme increase in heat that we see, the soils do dry faster, and the impacts are more severe they would have otherwise been."

The heat has increased the evaporation of what little water there is, worsened a natural water shortage and added to crop destruction, scientists said. The same group of scientists found that climate change made the heat wave last December 60 times more likely.

And cutting down trees in the southern Amazon in 2020 reached the highest rate in a decade, and that translates to less moisture being available farther south in Argentina, said study lead author Paola Arias, a climate scientist and professor at the Environmental School of the University of Antioquia in Colombia.

The team of scientists at World Weather Attribution uses observations and climate models to see if they find a climate change factor in how frequent or how strong extreme weather is. They compare what happened to how often it happened in the past, and they run computer simulations that contrast reality to what would have happened in a world without human-caused climate change from burning of fossil fuels.

In this drought's case, the models actually show a slight, not significant, increase in moisture from climate change but a clear connection to La Nina, which scientists say is waning. It will still take months if not longer for the region to get out of the drought - and that depends on whether the flip side of La Nina - El Nino - appears, said study co-author Juan Rivera, a scientist at the Argentine Institute for Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences.

In the past, the team of scientists has found no obvious climate change connection in some droughts and floods, but they do find global warming is a factor in most of the severe weather they investigate.

"One of the reasons why we do these attribution studies is to show what the realistic impacts of climate change are. And it's not that climate change makes everything worse," Otto said. "Not every bad thing that's happening now is because of climate change."

The South Carolina baseball team continues to roll.

Head coach Mark Kingston’s bunch outlasted North Carolina A&T 11-3 on Tuesday afternoon at Founders Park to remain as one of just two teams in the Southeastern Conference that are still undefeated.

Here are three things we learned about the Gamecocks (9-0) in the win:

Backtrack a year and James Hicks entered the year as South Carolina’s projected Saturday starter. Two starts and one surgery later, he’s been moved into midweek duty, at least for the time being.

Hicks was largely untouchable against a North Carolina A&T squad that was outmatched on Tuesday. He finished his predetermined two innings of work throwing strikes on 15 of his 25 pitches and allowing just one baserunner — who he threw out on a pickoff attempt during the following at-bat.

“This is where we needed him to be,” Kingston said. “He’s developing very nicely and he’ll be available as we move forward.”

Will Sanders, Noah Hall and Jack Mahoney have all looked more than capable through the first two weekend series’ of the 2023 season, but don’t be surprised if Hicks becomes an important innings eater at some point in time.

Will McGillis wasted little time getting the Gamecocks offense going on Tuesday afternoon — belting a homer into the home bullpen on South Carolina’s first at-bat of the contest.

McGillis is one of the more experienced players on this year’s roster, following four years at Southern Miss. He’s not the hitter Caleb Denny is, but McGillis did hit .265 with 16 home runs, 51 RBI and a .937 OPS his final year in Hattiesburg.

The ex-Golden Eagle has been up and down to start the year, though he’s recorded two hits in five of nine games this year and has six hits over his last four contests.

“I thought well gave us a decent look there at the top of the order and I liked how that looked,” Kingston said of shifting McGillis to the leadoff spot. “...We’ve been experimenting a little bit with that leadoff spot and I kind of liked the look of Will up there tonight.”

Like McGillis, Gavin Casas has come on strong to start his South Carolina career after transferring from Vanderbilt.

Casas recorded his third multi-hit game of the season on Tuesday, clocking two singles for a pair of RBI and earning a walk. He’s now tied for third on the team in RBI and is hitting .364 with runners in scoring position.

South Carolina’s lineup has started the season on a tear. If Casas and McGillis can stay hot through the weekend series vs. Clemson, it’s something to circle heading toward SEC play.

Trey Wheeler name sometimes gets lost in the shuffle in the middle of a deep South Carolina pitching staff, but he was electric on Tuesday.

Wheeler inherited a tricky spot with a runner on second and the Gamecocks leading 4-3 after an erratic effort from California transfer Nick Proctor. He promptly struck out six-hole hitter Michael Logan, walked a runner then forced a pop-up to right field to end the frame.

“I think I’ve always just kind of been really emotional (on the mound),” Wheeler said. “That plays into my competitiveness. I don’t really care what the situation is. I’m just going out there to suffocate the offense on the opposing side. The emotion is just a byproduct of being that competitive.”

South Carolina’s pitching staff, as star-studded as it is, lacks a ton of options from the left side outside of Wheeler, Matthew Becker and Jackson Phipps — who’s been particularly up and down. Wheeler has only pitched 1.1 innings this year, but the gritty effort in a tight spot Tuesday was an encouraging sign.

AMERICUS, Ga., Feb. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Habitat for Humanity International and the One Sumter Economic Development Foundation today closed on a deal that will give way to Americus' largest community park. Slated to break ground in April, the park will include a 35,000 square foot amphitheater – one of the largest in the region, a dog park, a children's playground and lots of open space.

"The park's location in city center helps bring life to the design, which is intended to foster and infuse a sense of vibrancy, cultural awareness, connectivity and engagement in the community," said Alicia Ledbetter, executive director of the One Sumter Economic Development Foundation. "We hope it will become a key music and arts destination across the region that will shape and define Americus for generations to come."

The new park was most recently home to Habitat for Humanity International's Global Village and Discovery Center (GVDC), which permanently closed its doors in 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The GVDC was an outdoor museum built in 2003 that was created to help educate people about the global need for adequate housing. Visitors could take a self-guided tour around the park and explore varying life-size types of housing structures commonly found in developing nations. During the first year of operation, Habitat welcomed two of the museums most famous visitors, President Jimmy Carter and Stephen Colbert, who was filming on-location for the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

One Sumter decided to name the music and art park after Reverend Pearly Brown, an influential guitarist and singer pegged as one of America's last great street performers of the post-civil rights era. Blind from birth, Brown's family relocated from Abbeville, Georgia to Americus when he was a young child.

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Brown's unique sound—holy blues—and mastery of the bottleneck portion of his six-string resonator guitar helped create a sound that would later influence various musical genres spanning gospel, blues, country and traditional African American folksongs. Undeterred by his disability, Brown performed in cities across Georgia. He was one of the first Black musicians to perform at the Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall. For his musical contributions, Brown was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 2010.

"Naming the park after Pearly Brown was a no brainer," Ledbetter said. "He brought the community together with the gift of music and we believe the park will help carry that legacy forward."

About One Sumter Economic Development Foundation, Inc.The One Sumter Economic Development Foundation, Inc., is a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded to enhance and support economic development activity in Sumter County, Georgia. One Sumter represents a community-wide initiative to support and enhance economic activity in Sumter County. One Sumter invests in four key priority areas: economic and community development; education and workforce development; leadership development and regional sustainability; and entrepreneurship and talent development. Launched in 2014 as an ambitious capital campaign to support the work of the community's existing economic development efforts, the One Sumter Economic Development Foundation, Inc., was birthed as a partnership between the Sumter County Development Authority and the Sumter County Chamber of Commerce.

About Habitat for HumanityDriven by the vision that everyone needs a decent place to live, Habitat for Humanity found its earliest inspirations as a grassroots movement on an interracial community farm in south Georgia. Since its founding in 1976, the Christian housing organization has since grown to become a leading global nonprofit working in local communities across all 50 states in the U.S. and in more than 70 countries. Families and individuals in need of a hand up partner with Habitat for Humanity to build or improve a place they can call home. Habitat homeowners help build their own homes alongside volunteers and pay an affordable mortgage. Through financial support, volunteering or adding a voice to support affordable housing, everyone can help families achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Through shelter, we empower. To learn more, visit habitat.org.

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SOURCE Habitat for Humanity International

Federal plans to limit the amount of toxic “forever chemicals’‘ in drinking water could cost the city of Columbia more than $150 million in water system upgrades, a price tag that could cause monthly utility bills to rise.

That’s the assessment of Assistant City Manager Clint Shealy, whose staff briefed City Council on Tuesday about how Columbia is preparing to deal with requirements to reduce or eliminate forever chemicals, formally known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

“You could be looking at an investment of $150 million to $200 million of capital, combined, at our treatment plants,’‘ depending on how strict the federal limit will be, Shealy told The State.

President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing to establish the nation’s first-ever limit on how much PFAS will be allowed in drinking water. The proposed limit on some of the most common types of forever chemicals is expected out this spring, and some water utilities expect the limit to be extreme.

Forever chemicals are a hazard to people who are exposed over time but the chemicals are unregulated at the federal level and in South Carolina.

Shealy, who oversees Columbia’s utilities, said a filtering system known as granular activated carbon is the most likely to be installed to meet expected federal limits.

In addition to the $150 million-$200 million price tag to upgrade the system, it could cost an extra $24 million annually to run the system to filter out PFAS chemicals, officials said.

The requirement could wind up “fundamentally changing the cost of water for customers,’‘ Shealy said. Columbia has the largest capacity water system in South Carolina and serves one of the largest populations, with about 400,000 people. It now spends about $17 million annually treating water, officials said. Much of the city’s utility upgrades are also directed at costly fixes to Columbia’s leaking sewer system.

Shealy, like some other public utility officials, is urging a deliberate approach before setting stringent new standards for PFAS in drinking water. City officials questioned Tuesday whether the federal government knows enough about the health effects of PFAS to warrant such a costly investment, saying 80% of a person’s exposure is not from drinking water.

The health impact “is still very uncertain,’’ Columbia utilities director Frank Eskridge told a City Council committee. “There is an enormous amount of research going on at the federal level by all the different health agencies and they’re very diligently looking into what kind of effect it would have.’’

Environmental groups are pushing the administration to set the limit as soon as possible, saying there have been plenty of studies to warrant a drinking water limit on PFAS. More than 1,000 studies have been conducted that show a link between harmful health effects and certain PFAS compounds, Upstate Forever’s Megan Chase-Muller said at a meeting with state regulators last year to discuss PFAS limits.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says peer-reviewed scientific studies show that certain PFAS can decrease fertility in women, increase the risk of prostate and kidney cancer, cause developmental delays in children, and hurt the ability of people’s immune systems to fight infections. The greatest risk to the public is long-term exposure.

During a news conference last week, lawyer Robert Bilott and actor Mark Ruffalo said the federal government has delayed the drinking water standard for too long. The federal government today is offering billions of dollars to states to pay for water system improvements, but Bilott and Ruffalo say the government needs to act on the new drinking water standard.

Bilott, a plaintiff’s attorney who once worked for a corporate law firm, is widely credited with helping to unravel how chemical manufacturers knew about the hazards of forever chemicals more than 50 years ago, but never said much about the danger.

Ruffalo played Bilott in the movie “Dark Waters,’‘ which was about the forever chemicals work the lawyer did.

“We’ve all been victims to the polluters who hid the risks of PFAS from their workers and neighbors — and the victims of the regulators, who have looked the other way for decades,’‘ Ruffalo said.

The proposed federal limit is expected to be lower than a non-binding federal health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion that was in place for years for the most well-known forever chemicals. The non-binding health level, which gives guidance on the amount of PFAS considered unsafe, is now near zero for the most well-known types of forever chemicals.

The level of the proposed limit has not yet been made public, but Columbia officials are bracing for a level of 4 parts per trillion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency could announce the limit as soon as Friday, they said.

Forever chemicals were developed in the 1940s for a variety of uses, including non-stick frying pans, waterproof clothing and foam used in firefighting. Forever chemicals are widely present in the environment because they are used in so many products. Industrial plants, military bases and airports are among the major sources of PFAS contamination in groundwater and rivers. The materials were key ingredients in materials used at those facilities, federal research shows.

Officials with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control have not advocated for a state drinking water standard, despite efforts by some state lawmakers and environmentalists last year to set a state limit. Agency officials are waiting for the federal limit to be set, a position that has drawn criticism from environmentalists.

DHEC said this week it is conducting extensive research on where forever chemicals are showing up in drinking water, rivers and groundwater.

In the past three years, the department has documented PFAS contamination in about three dozen drinking water systems in South Carolina, including Columbia’s. In the city, the average amounts of the most common PFAS chemicals -- known as PFOA and PFOS -- are generally below 10 parts per trillion, according to the city. That’s below the old 70 parts per trillion health advisory level but above the new non-binding advisory level of near zero.

At the same time, DHEC has found evidence of widespread PFAS contamination in rivers that public drinking water plants depend on. Two rounds of testing have found PFAS contamination in most waterways DHEC checked.

Shealy said the key to ridding water systems of PFAS contamination lies with stopping sources of PFAS that are contaminating the rivers and lakes water treatment plants depend on. If the water comes in clean, there won’t be a need to install expensive filters for PFAS, he said.

“We’re better off if we keep the materials out of our environment, rather than trying to treat them,’‘ Shealy said before Tuesday’s meeting. “