kitchen countertopsIn West Ashley, SC

SCDNR News

CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C.

Last week, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (SCDNR) was awarded $1.5 million to work with partners and volunteers in the Charleston area to restore seven acres of degraded salt marsh in a historically important area. The project will unfold over four years and use volunteers to plant salt marsh grasses and construct oyster reefs through SCDNR’s South Carolina Oyster Recycling and Enhancement (SCORE) Program.

"We’re ecstatic to receive funding for this project," said Michael Hodges, SCDNR shellfish biologist and lead on the project. "We’re excited that we will get to involve so many volunteers and partners in the project’s implementation. This will be a unique project, using novel, nature-based solutions to restore the degraded tidal marsh in this historically significant part of the Lowcountry."

Granted by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through the National Coastal Resilience Fund, the award is one of eight funded across the country and represents a continuation of federally funded work on Old Towne Creek in West Ashley. Phase one of the project, led by the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), involved developing engineering and design plans for coastal marshes in West Ashley. A team led by Dr. Joel E. Kostka, Professor and Associate Chair for Research in the Schools of Biological Sciences and Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at GT, will lead post-restoration monitoring and quantify habitat improvements as well as collaborate with SCDNR to train volunteers and citizen scientists. Other partners in this phase of the project will include Robinson Design Engineers and the South Carolina Aquarium.

"This project is a win-win for the Charleston area as it will restore critical wildlife habitat while strengthening the resilience of the coastline to damage from storms and erosion made worse by climate change," said Dr. Kostka. "We at Georgia Tech are excited to participate in the project, in particular to leverage science to develop metrics and improve strategies that will ensure the success of nature-based restoration activities across the U.S."

The restoration site is in what was formerly Maryville, a small town with an important role in Charleston’s history. Chartered and settled in 1886, Maryville was one of the area’s most prominent settlement communities – self-sustaining, all-Black communities that offered the region’s formerly enslaved population safer places to buy land, raise families, and pursue farming or trades in the Jim Crow-era South.

Despite later annexation by the city of Charleston and rapid development of surrounding West Ashley, the area is still known to some locals – including descendants of the town’s founders – as Maryville.

Old Towne Creek is the tidal waterway that connects this area to the nearby Ashley River. In 1670, it saw the first English settlers arrive and establish ‘Charles Towne’ on its banks. Later, the fishermen of Maryville plied its waters for crab, oysters and fish. Today, the creek is popular among kayakers and birdwatchers. But like many urban waterways, Old Towne Creek and its surrounding marshes have degraded over time, particularly after a severe drought in 2012 and another salt marsh dieback event in 2016. Researchers have found that the salt marsh within the project area has not recovered naturally like other areas with similar conditions.

The recent $1.5 million in funding will allow for the restoration and monitoring of seven acres of degraded salt marsh through community-based restoration efforts. Members of the community and the Ashleyville-Maryville Neighborhood Association, who initially noticed that the marsh vegetation was dying back, participated in the initial site assessment and will now be engaged as volunteers in the restoration.

SCDNR biologists have been constructing ‘living shorelines’ – shorelines made of natural materials – for two decades, primarily using recycled oyster shells. These shells attract young oysters, which settle on the hard materials and collectively grow into reef structures that filter waterways, provide habitat for fish and buffer shorelines from erosion.

Please click here to sign up to receive updates about marsh restoration volunteer events.

For additional information, contact: Erin Weeks at (843) 729-3531 WeeksE@dnr.sc.gov

WEST ASHLEY, S.C. (WCSC) - Neighbors in a West Ashley community say they are frustrated and anxious after floodwater crept up to their homes, and a potential solution could be a few years away.

Bennett Barton and Rachel Brunette said Thursday’s rainstorms flooded both the road and their backyards, almost getting into their houses. They said as cars passed by, the wake would go up and slap against their front doors.

“This is my first house; I didn’t know what to expect,” Barton said. “I started panicking. I couldn’t leave to get sandbags or any preventative measures because the road was flooded, too.”

They said as cars passed by, the wake would go up and slap against their front doors.

“At one point, I even got pitchers and just was pouring them into my sink from my screened-in porch,” Barton said. Didn’t do anything, but it made me ease my mind a little bit.”

The Woodlands neighborhood is part of the Dupont Wappoo Watershed, which consists of around 1,000 acres of West Ashley surrounding the Citadel Mall.

The City of Charleston said they are spending $5 million on four out of the 10 scheduled projects to improve downstream water flow under Interstate 526. Once that is done, the city will be increasing the size of pipes and canals near the Woodlands neighborhood to get the water out faster.

“There’s not a lot of elevation change to make that water flow very quickly,” Charleston Director of Stormwater Management Matthew Fountain said, “so those very small ditches don’t work for how much pavement, how many buildings we have in the basin now.”

Brunette said it is not uncommon for her to have to check the weather radar before she leaves for work.

“So, when I’m away for the day, I have to be prepared that whether my windows are open, whether the dog is in or out, and like you said if the vehicle is in the right place in case it does flood,” Brunette said. “There’s been a couple of cars that have been flooded out. The landscaping, you can’t keep decent landscaping. It washes away.”

The city said they are optimistic construction on the projects will start in 2025, but until then, Barton said his anxiety will continue.

“If it had rained for two more hours or it was going into high tide, I think my living room would have been underwater,” Barton said. “Who knows how much that would have cost?”

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CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — A West Ashley pond needing to be cleaned after a nearby restaurant dumped oil into a storm drain is improving significantly, according to City of Charleston leaders.

“It was in very bad condition, but it is getting much, much more where we want to see it,” said Matt Fountain, Director of the Stormwater Management Department for the City of Charleston.

On Tuesday, the department met with the contractor hired by Rio Chico Mexican Restaurant for a status update.

“They’ve installed oil absorbent booms to make sure that they are not getting any additional spill that hasn’t been identified or there’s some other issue occurring, [and] replace the absorbing materials necessary,” Fountain said. “So, we’ll continue our inspection, probably on a weekly basis, to make sure all of that is happening.”

While the bulk of the work has already been handled, Fountain said a timeline of when normal conditions will return is a bit murky.

“The idea is to get the concentrations down to a low enough level so they are not causing any harm, and they can be handled by normal biodegradation. You just want the normal processes that would break down oil and the environment to do that,” he said.

The Carolina Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is now a temporary home to turtles and birds covered in thick layers of oil.

On Tuesday, more arrived.

“Ten turtles,” said Keenan Freitas, a staff rehabilitator with the center.

"Apparently, every time we get a transport in, they appear to be more and more oiled.”

Freitas said the facility is now caring for five birds and 45 turtles.

“Ideally, they go back into the pond, but we can’t do that,” he said. “They’re just going to be re-infected or contaminated. So that will be up to the state’s herpetologist where they want to put those turtles.”

When it comes to businesses putting anything in the storm drain that shouldn’t be there, city officials are offering a reminder:

“It’s always cheaper to do maintenance and do things correctly in the first place,” Fountain said. “Then they come back and try to hire a contractor and basically do emergency repair work. That’s a huge financial burden.”

New Ashley Ridge tennis coach Scott Nichols wasn’t sure what to expect from the Lady Swamp Foxes at the beginning of this season.

Ashley Ridge has seen some of its girls’ tennis teams really shine but last spring lost strong athletes to graduation. With a sport like tennis it can be hard to predict which underclassmen will return and having a new coach makes such forecasting even more difficult. With a few matches now in the books, Nichols is optimistic.

“We had a good group show up for tryouts,” Nichols said. “Some of them played last year and others didn’t so we are still working on exactly where everyone will fit. We have players learning about doubles play and working on positioning. We are young but striving to exceed expectations.”

Senior Elena Stopar is the current No. 1 Singles player. Three of the four remaining singles spots have been consistently filled by freshman Rolyns Hadley, junior Anna Dale and senior Madison Pastor. Other members of the team who are competing for the remaining starting Singles spot and two Doubles spots are seniors Monica Duffy and Caitlyn Pastor, juniors Catherine McCoy, Cali Mae Rice and Elisa Rice, and freshmen Allison Wilson and Kalynn Windon.

“They all have a great attitude, good attention to detail and good team support,” Nichols said. “We are really just beginning region play but we are hoping we can compete well against all those teams.”

Ashley Ridge is out to a 2-4 start with 4-2 wins over Stratford and region-foe Fort Dorchester. The Lady Swamp Foxes were defeated by Wando, Berkeley and region foe West Ashley. Berkeley beat Ashley Ridge twice.

“The West Ashley match was exciting, but we lost,” Nichols said. “It was 3-3 entering No. 1 Doubles and we fell a little short so we are hoping we can beat them at our place by a large enough margin to claim a tie-breaker over West Ashley.”

Completion of improvements to the Ashley Ridge tennis courts was set behind schedule because of inclement weather so the Swamp Foxes have yet to host a match this season. However, improvements are now complete. The home opener for Ashley Ridge is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Sept. 29 when the Swamp Foxes will take on Fort Dorchester.

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - Dorchester County residents will be voting in November on whether to continue paying a “transportation penny,” a one-cent tax that funds road improvement projects.

There are dozens of projects waiting for funding including one, in particular, looking to help alleviate traffic congestion from Highway 61, especially the area from Paul Cantrell Boulevard in West Ashley.

“It’s been pretty rough,” says Adam Ruffin, who lives off of Hwy 61. “Basically single file line of cars and standstill traffic.

Ruffin and his wife live off the two-lane road and know it’s only going to get worse with all of the development going up. One person who’s working on some of the new neighborhoods is Paul Cook who has to drive 61 every day.

“I can’t believe people don’t find an alternate route to take because the traffic here is horrendous both going in and out,” Cook says.

“Certainly, I’m no expert in the field of traffic but something definitely needs to be done to alleviate some of that traffic out there,” Ruffin says.

A plan is in the works to extend Glenn McConnell Parkway. The parkway currently ends at Bees Ferry Road in West Ashley. But if the proposal goes through, it will keep going into Dorchester County where, according to maps, it would intersect with Old Beech Hill Road and connect to Wright Road, essentially running parallel to Highway 61.

“It will definitely help with people getting to and from work and alleviate a lot of the smaller back roads,” Gregory Maute, who lives along Wright Road, says. “But then if it’s tying in here, it’s going to impact my neighbors and myself and the people that live down the road.”

Maute says this was the first time he was hearing about the project and can see some positives and negatives.

“It would make us more accessible,” Maute says. “But then yes, if they’re widening this road and you know doing two or three lanes each way, that becomes from a country road to a well-traveled road -- a lot of traffic and all that so it’s can be a little bit of a double-edged sword.”

The big question: How would it be funded? Dorchester County says the 1% sales and use tax would generate approximately $735 million. The county’s Capital Improvement Plan calls for nearly $168 million to be allocated for the Glenn McConnell Extension.

Dorchester County leaders say the Public Works director would be happy to talk if the tax is passed by voters in November.

Meanwhile, Maute says he thinks the tax shouldn’t be funded by people who already live there.

“I believe that if it’s going to be funded, it needs to be impact funds on the hundreds of homes that are going in across the area,” Maute says. “Seventy-two people a day are moving here. So we need to not foot the bill.”

Dorchester County residents already pay one cent towards road improvements and have for nearly 20 years. This vote in November would be to continue that tax.

Charleston County officials say they are not currently a part of the extension project.

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