Stranger Things: Exploring the Infrastructures of Pollution in Columbia, SC

Abstract

In 2010, a toxic tar-like material (TLM) was discovered in the riverbed of a popular Congaree River boat launch site near downtown Columbia, South Carolina. In this article, we examine the novel infrastructural form that emerged to deal with this waste, a temporary cofferdam that was built in 2022 as an integral element in the Congaree River Sediment Cleanup project. In doing so, we consider what we call the short and long histories of the cofferdam’s construction. These histories provide a way of glimpsing into how post-industrial landscapes and infrastructures are shaped by an inexhaustible list of potentially impactful factors both within and beyond contaminated spaces. We argue that the short history of the cofferdam’s size, shape, composition, and age have been shaped by its long history of factors that include potential unexploded Civil War ordnance, the presence of threatened and endangered species, and state and non-state actor relationships. This case study invites us to think more broadly about the presence of coal tar as an index, object, and constituent of different environment infrastructural forms.