Impacts

• SC NEMO provided technical and financial support to the Town of Bluffton, located outside of Hilton Head, to develop a critical resources survey and map. The survey is being used to identify threats to critical natural resources, and serve as the basis for natural resource protection ordinances being drafted that help protect wetlands, floodplains, trees, wildlife habitat and stormwater.

• The Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium (CWSEC), which was formed in 2004, is a cooperative stormwater education initiative created in response to NPDES Stormwater Phase II permitting requirements. The education providers of the Consortium will utilize NEMO to provide stormwater education to local officials in the six communities that are members of the Consortium: the City of Conway, Georgetown County, Horry County, the City of Myrtle Beach, the City of North Myrtle Beach and the City of Surfside Beach. This regional education approach will likely serve as a statewide model.

Spotlight On...

Planning for Growth Along a Rapidly Growing Coastline

The South Carolina Sea Grant Extension Program (SCSGEP) and its partners started a NEMO project to help coastal communities protect natural resources while also planning for and accommodating growth.

After an initial pilot project in the Waccamaw watershed along South Carolina’s northern coast, the program has expanded its efforts to watersheds throughout the state, providing educational programs in nearly 60% of the counties. Never-theless, the rapid development of previously undeveloped lands along the coast has required a targeted coastal effort. Thus, NEMO launched the Coastal Community Initiative (CCI) grants program to provide intensive support and training focused on the development of land management policies and practices to reduce polluted stormwater runoff, protect local natural resources and encourage sustainable development.

The Town of Edisto Beach in Colleton County, the Town of Bluffton in Beaufort County, and Horry County were chosen to each receive a CCI grant award of $2,500. As a result, more than $17,000 in additional funds were leveraged by these communities for project implementation. The SCSGEP staff provided water quality educational and technical assistance training to the local officials, in addition to providing input and recommendations on best management practices for reducing polluted runoff. All three communities have made good use of the educational and technical assistance.

The Town of Edisto Beach, which lies just south of Charleston, incorporated SC NEMO’s recommendations on pervious and semi-pervious surfaces and the maintenance of roads and storm drains in the sections of its Comprehensive Plan for new development and water quality recommendations. After the comprehensive plan revisions were approved, the Town began to implement the plan by adopting ordinance changes that encourage on-site treatment of polluted runoff with landscaping and buffer requirements, and the reduction of impervious surfaces through limitations on lot size and dwelling size. Edisto Beach is now in the process of completing an area-wide stormwater management plan and developing further code recommendations for zoning changes to further control runoff.

The Town of Bluffton, faced with overwhelming development pressures on and around the popular Hilton Head Island, used the grant funding to research and develop a map of the critical natural resources within the community. Based on the Critical Resources Map and Survey, the town has revised the natural resources portion of its comprehensive plan and drafted natural resource protection ordinances for wetlands, floodplains, trees, wildlife habitat and stormwater, all of which are awaiting final approval from the Town Council.

Horry County, which borders North Carolina and includes the resort mecca of Myrtle Beach, conducted an open space inventory of the County with NEMO’s assistance and then developed an Open Space Plan that will be included in the County’s Comprehensive Plan, currently under revision.

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