South Carolina has a lot of water: 30,000 miles of waterways and eight major river basins that stretch the state.
But if aggressive steps are not taken to learn “exactly what water we have, where we have it, when we have it, how much of it there is, where it’s going, (and) why it’s going where it’s going,” Gov. Henry McMaster said South Carolina will have problems.
On Thursday, McMaster and Ben Duncan, who heads theOffice of Resilience, unveiled 54 new recommendations Duncan said will guide the roughly two-year-old state agency into the future as it looks to curb loss of life and property damage caused by flooding and severe weather.
The reportwas required after the department’s inception. This year, state lawmakers spent $200 million alone on the agency to bolster its efforts – an expense requested by McMaster.
The state is taking a “system-wide approach to evaluating vulnerable flooding and hazard conditions in South Carolina,” said Duncan, who stood surrounded by photos of 3,341 homes that were either repaired or replaced because of flooding. “And this is a clear picture from this plan of how we will move forward.”
Broken down into 10 categories, the recommendationsrange from data collection and outreach to infrastructure design, conservation and a voluntary home buyout program.
“Citizens will be safer,” Duncan said. “We will have a better South Carolina and an understanding of where we are in our resilience efforts.”
With the report out, Duncan said they’ll next connect with communities and increase public awareness.
That includes connecting with South Carolina’s tribal and traditional communities, “who can provide local knowledge and expertise to help us deal with these issues,” said Alex Butler, resilience’s planning director.
“Every part of the state faces risk,” Butler said. “Each part of the state has their own unique risk, and that’s why it’s important for us to work at the watershed level. The coast obviously has to deal with sea-level rise, but we also have threats in the Upstate. (The) I-85 corridor has a high risk of impacts from a large flooding event. We just haven’t been tested like we have in other parts of the state.”
Water, Butler added, doesn’t “follow political boundaries.”
And this plan won’t just help current South Carolinians, Butler continued.
It’s designed to also target new residents in hopes that they avoid putting themselves in harm’s way, he said.
McMaster said Thursday that he anticipates the $200 million will go a long way but didn’t completely rule out returning to the Legislature to ask for more money. He said he hopes to leverage the new state money with matching dollars from the private sector and other grants.
The plan also recommends new legislation to better protect the state’s isolated wetlands, such as Carolina bays, that offer natural flood protection, Butler said.
“This is a project that is not going to begin today and end in a year or so,” McMaster said. “This is something that will be a permanent part of life in South Carolina.”
