News that $653,000 has been allocated to try to restore the Okatie River to its formerly pristine and productive state is a mixed bag.
It would be wonderful if the river could be brought back to health, but the money to be spent also shows a public cost to private development.
And this particular endeavor will be for naught if we don’t change how and where we build near our estuaries.
It’s true for the Okatie, and it’s true for the May River, which also has seen water quality in its headwaters degrade in recent years.
Bluffton, too, has received a federal Clean Water Act grant. The $483,500 grant is to be used in a three-year project to reduce fecal coliform in the river. According to the town’s website, the project will be a success if one year after its end (2013), oysters can be harvested in the entire May River.
Since 2009, harvesting has been prohibited in the upper reaches of the headwaters and restricted after more than 1.1 inches of rain in about four miles of the river.
The Okatie has been designated impaired since 1995 because of high fecal coliform counts, which studies have attributed largely to increased development in the area.
Fecal coliform is an indicator of other pollutants in the water.
State and federal officials have studied pollutant loads in the river to determine the maximum amounts it can handle and stay healthy. Results show that pollutants need to be reduced up to 50 percent in the upper reaches of the Okatie watershed.
The funding for the three-year project comes from $392,018 in federal money, with the rest coming from cash and in-kind services from partners.
The multi-pronged approach outlined in the grant request received high marks, but it also illustrates the complexity of trying to undo what’s been done.
And this is far from the only money spent to try to protect the Okatie River. Last week, Beaufort County announced yet another purchase of development rights in that area.
The $2.5 million will keep undeveloped 47 acres owned by Wilson Sanders. The property is on the headwaters and across S.C. 170 from property slated for shopping center development in Hardeeville. It brings the total spent by the county to try to protect the Okatie to about $18 million.
But this money and the $653,000 plan to reduce the amount of pollutants reaching the river will be wasted if we don’t address and improve development practices in the watershed.
For the Okatie River, it will take a concerted effort by Beaufort County, Bluffton, Jasper County and Hardeeville officials, as well as state and federal officials.
Our propensity to take a piecemeal approach to permitting and development standards is not working.
The Coastal Conservation League estimates that 15 percent of the Okatie watershed is covered with hard surfaces now. Research has found that if 10 percent of land is covered by hard surfaces, oystering in the headwaters of tidal creeks is likely to be prohibited. If 30 percent or more of the land is covered, it brings the kinds of changes that can’t be turned back completely.
Development pressures in that crossroads area, near the intersection of U.S. 278 and S.C. 170, are only going to increase.
Horne Properties and The Sembler Co. continue to press forward with plans to build shopping centers nearby. The Graves family has asked Bluffton to annex 150 rural acres on the headwaters. Bluffton has moved to annex another 40 acres near there.
We need to get out ahead of this issue so that we don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars — even millions of dollars– trying to fix what we shouldn’t have broken in the first place.
from The Island Packet
Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/08/03/1325888/federal-grant-good-news-for-troubled.html#ixzz0vZ3Gaknb
