We are currently revising the Gills Creek Watershed Management Plan and need your help to identify problem areas and issues. You—our members and friends—are on the ground in the watershed and may be more familiar with areas of severe erosion, runoff, and contamination then our consultants. And you may know of issues that no one else has thought about.

Please go to https://tinyurl.com/GCWAWMP to share your knowledge and improve the new Watershed Management Plan. Thank you!

Our community suffers from a major, unsightly problem: litter. It’s everywhere you look: on the street, in parking lots, in the ditches, even in our neighborhoods.

All of this trash ends up somewhere, and for a large portion of Richland County, that somewhere is Gills Creek.

Gills Creek used to be a true community asset with clean water, abundant wildlife, even a swimming club. These days, it’s polluted with high levels of bacteria, mercury,and other contaminants that make swimming inadvisable if not downright dangerous. The most obvious problem, though, is the litter.

Workers with C.L. Construction demolish the Title Loans building near Devine Street on Monday, March 18, 2019, in Columbia. The structure stood as a reminder of destructive 2015 flooding.