Funding for Hilton Head drinking water pipeline saved

Funding for a 5,000-foot long, two-foot-wide drinking water pipeline buried deep beneath the Intracoastal Waterway almost got lost in the shuffle as Beaufort County Council, Hilton Head Island Town Council, and SC Senator Tom Davis scrambled to find and allocate funding solutions to construct the new 278 Bridge Corridor Project from the mainland to Hilton Head over the past eight weeks.

Fortunately, Melinda Tunner, the newly elected council representative for Ward 6, which is home to the Hilton Head Public Service District, had been keeping tabs on the underwater lifeline, which had almost been overlooked yet serves more than 22,000 customers and nearly two-thirds of the island.

Pete Nardi, General Manager for the public service district, said Tunner had questioned him back in 2024 about the pipeline before her election and wanted to learn more about the sources of the island’s water supply.

“Now she has become our champion,” said Nardi. “She and County Councilman Larry McElyn have helped us raise awareness of this important issue, and their efforts will hopefully keep us from increasing customer rates.”

Knowing the construction of a new pipeline would likely be a fixed cost of somewhere between $15 and $20 million and that the pipeline was required to be completed prior to the actual bridge construction, Tunner saw the writing on the wall.

Nardi and PSD Commissioner Frank Turano realized that the State’s allocation of 4.5% would never be able to cover the fixed pipeline cost if the overall bridge project was going to be reduced in price by more than $100 million. And as a result, a sizable gap could be left for the public to pay.

At the January 9 Town Council Workshop, Tunner introduced the dilemma with a soft-spoken query. “In addition, I have a question about the underwater pipeline that is critical to our drinking water and the reimbursement model that must be considered with the reduced scope of the bridge project.”

As she courteously unfolded the implications of the overlooked pipeline cost, a ripple of surprise and dismay swept through the chamber, which included both town and county council members as well as Senator Davis.

Town Councilwoman Patsy Brison later noted, “It was a bombshell.”

Thankfully, since then, Hilton Head Mayor Alan Perry has expressed hope that the PSD will be made whole through various means, and its ratepayers will not be taking on the burden.