In 2023, Georgetown County released the Waccamaw Neck Master Stormwater Plan, noting it was “a first for the county and possibly the state”.
The stormwater plan is for build out of the project area based on existing zoning. That’s the same zoning that hasn’t been updated since the 1970’s.
The scoping for the project and the completed plan has many recommendations that are big on preventing flooding yet fall short when it comes to water quality issues in the Murrells Inlet estuary. Within the scope of services defining and receiving stakeholder input was noted.
The definition for the purpose of the plan appears to have been very limited stakeholder engagement since to my knowledge there was none with the volunteer watershed committee in Murrells Inlet that I have served on since 2012. The only public meeting I attended was big on presenting information and announcing a portal for pinning known flood areas on maps online.
I tried to report areas of flooding as requested at the public meeting in July 2021 and found it challenging to navigate and will be curious to see what the online dashboards look like when the county GIS site finally comes online. It has been down for months. Hopefully it will have an easy way to report issues and those reports will be provided to county council monthly so they can understand the problem areas in their districts.
For Murrells Inlet, there are several problem areas that were noted and of course the 42 inch outfall project that nobody knew about unit it was put on public notice with SCDHEC. That project is stalled and if there had been any ‘stakeholder’ input, the firm that worked so hard to develop the plan would have known the pipe was set to go in the most productive oyster harvesting areas in Murrells Inlet. Polluted runoff and oysters don’t mix.
What were they thinking?
Oyster harvesting in Murrells Inlet is the most economically important on the north coast of SC. Water quality is a big issue here and failing to improve it will eventually impact tourism.
It is interesting to note the nuggets in the scope of services. Only 38% of the 133 sub-basins in the project area were hydrologically modeled, leaving out small basins with little or no infrastructure.
With rapid development occurring in the Murrells Inlet Watershed and the lack of implementation of the watershed plan, the new master plan states “there were no obvious low-cost, high-value solutions found to significantly affect water quality”.
Really?
Putting the watershed plan on a shelf since it was completed is no solution. Neither is failing to engage with the community. There are plenty of solutions that continue to be ignored. All good plans begin with engaging the local community. How long before the county finally gets it?
How long, indeed? The pressure is mounting as more and more folks become aware of the inadequate (at best) implementation of any plan for preservation and conservation of resources. But will it be too little too late? It seems as if that's the county's plan.
We know that it takes forever to get anything done.