State regulators have fined Blue Granite Water $52,562 for again polluting the Saluda River.

The out-of-state owned utility has a long history of violating SC pollution laws.

This time the fine was for discharging raw sewage from an aging treatment plant into an Irmo creek that flows into the river.

Regulators found untreated sewage draining from a Rawls Creek manhole in Friarsgate last winter.

The Department of Health and Environmental Control ordered the company to submit a detailed plan to prevent future pollution from this and its other plants, The State newspaper reported.

The Friarsgate plant has fouled the Saluda River near Saluda Shoals Park numerous times.

Blue Granite was fined nearly $80,000 after bacteria levels soared in 2017.

The company has closed the Friarsgate plant and hooked up with Columbia’s larger treatment system.

Sewage in the Saluda has been a concern for decades.

Blue Granite changed its name but not its operations from Carolina Water.

Its pollution has damaged the lower Saluda's popular whitewater rapids and active trout fishery.

Blue Granite had no immediate comment. DHEC said the company has paid the $52,000 fine.