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Bridget Tkacik, a mother of three, notified South Carolina enforcement officials of the spill after she noticed dozens of dead fish floating in the creek in the backyard of her home in Fort Mill's Bailywick subdivision.

As soon as Catawba Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby realized what was going on, she sprang into action, driving down to Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill to warn mothers with caravans full of children playing in and near Steele Creek that the kids needed to get out immediately and may already be at risk for infection.

Tkacik says the attitude of enforcement officials from both states frustrated her.

"All I really got out of them was, 'I wouldn't put my foot in that creek,'" said Tkacik. "Everyone's attitude was, 'We tested it, the fish died, tough luck.' If this creek dies, we may lose all our green space and the wildlife we have. Every Spring, it was a ritual to go out and gather the tadpoles. We also lost a great blue heron that used to fish in our backyard and the fish have not returned."

Tkacik is particularly perturbed that North and South Carolina laws don't require that neighborhood residents and parkgoers be notified of large sewage spills into creeks and streams since the water is not considered "recreational," or water that is used for swimming.

"You can't keep a little boy out of the creek," she says, referring to her eight-year-old son. "My kids like to cross the creek."

Other Fort Mill moms agreed. Some 40 people showed up at a meeting put together by Lisenby to question North and South Carolina officials about the spill and demand that a fine be levied and that they be notified of future spills. At least four media outlets ran high-profile stories on the spill and the ensuing controversy. This time, a fine was levied: $10,400 to be paid by three realty and construction companies that had caused the spill. CMU, although it was roundly criticized for the delay in communication with South Carolina officials and for not testing adequately, did not receive a fine.

The added publicity helped the fine process along, says Lisenby, but the clincher was that this time, there was also detailed water quality sampling to prove the extent of the damage of the spill.

Water testing by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) showed fecal coliform levels 55 to 65 times higher than those considered safe for human contact with the water. The test proved beyond a doubt that the spill violated both North and South Carolina water quality laws. Without the fecal test, the Fort Mill folks would have been out of luck because, as has been the case in so many big spills in Mecklenburg County, there would be no evidence of damage to the creek besides the fish kill.

MCWQP Water Quality Supervisor John McCulloch explains the lack of fecal testing the way most North Carolina investigators and enforcers do.

"There's no point in doing a fecal test if you already know there's sewage in the creek," said McCullough. "The counts would be sky high."

The problem with that attitude, says Lisenby, is that without documentation of the sky-high fecal counts, there's not enough evidence of an environmental crime to fine the polluters. And there's ultimately no way to assess how dangerous the creek water running behind your home really is after a spill.

Whether investigators collect evidence is one issue, says Lisenby. How thorough they are is another. There is a stark contrast between the extent to which South Carolina environmental officials go to investigate a spill and the efforts made in Mecklenburg County.

Take fish kills, for instance. To investigators, a fish kill and its relative size is one of the key indicators of the seriousness of a spill. But dead fish don't always cooperate by neatly displaying themselves for inspection along the shore. Oftentimes, they sink. To get an accurate indication of a fish kill, you've got to get in the stream and drag the bottom, and that's exactly what South Carolina officials did. They strapped on hip waders and dragged the stream with nets. The result was over 1,000 dead fish.

When thorough research isn't done, the number of dead fish reported plummets. In the case of the 3.7 million gallon spill at Long Creek, the water wasn't dragged. Instead, county investigators counted the number of fish on a single creek bank and reported a fish kill of 16. A similar thing happened with the Morning Dale Drive spill, which, at a half-million gallons, was twice the size of the Steele Creek spill. Only 20 dead fish were reported.