Together for Beaufort – Water Quality Committee
Future Priorities
October 2008, Updates May 2015
“We will be Good Stewards of our Natural Resources by Protecting and
Monitoring Water Quality”
The Next 10 Steps for the Blueprint for Clean Water
1. Beaufort County and Municipalities should establish consistent
progressive land use policies with documented water quality
benefits, especially for our Outstanding Resource and Shellfish
Harvesting Waters. Complete
2. Beaufort County and Municipalities should include water
quality controls in improvements to existing drainage systems.
Complete
3. Beaufort County and Municipalities should consider higher
stormwater retention levels in “dead end” creeks to prevent high
freshwater inputs. Some examples of significant “dead end”
creeks would be the upper reaches of the Okatie River and Battery
Creek. Nearly all tidal creeks have dead end zones in their upper
reaches. Coordinated effort by all jurisdictions should be made in
development of the Okatie Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to
address this issue. In Progress. Through regular testing, good
research is being gathered to help determine best retention levels.
4. State and Federal Agencies should endeavor to follow more
rigid county and municipal stormwater requirements.
5. Beaufort County and Municipalities should adopt the Septic
Tank Operation and Maintenance Ordinance recommended by
DHEC. Hilton Head working to get residents on sanitary sewer.
319 & community block grants have helped with failing septic
tanks.
6. Beaufort County and Municipalities should continually improve
their stormwater standards for new development. As science
continues to evolve and regulations change, periodically,
standards should be reviewed and revised.
7. Beaufort County, Municipalities, DHEC, and DNR should
jointly develop, implement, and coordinate a stormwater
monitoring strategy, to addresses water quality trends and
performance of water quality control systems. These strategies
will be formalized through the upcoming MS4 regulations being
implemented.
8. Beaufort County and Municipalities should, in cooperation with
our education partners, develop a single comprehensive
outreach program directed at staff, elected and appointed
officials, the public and the development community. The
outreach program should include benefits of vegetative buffers,
native landscaping, reducing use of lawn chemicals, utilization
of natural systems, and low impact development (LID).
Currently up to date, but should continue to work on these &
update.
9. Beaufort County, Municipalities and BJW&S Authority should
capitalize on opportunities for conservation and reuse of water.
10. Beaufort County in cooperation with Municipalities should
establish managed household hazardous waste drop-off/reuse sites
to prevent wastes from impacting waters. Discussed improving
signage for paints & other hazardous materials at drop off centers
and have clear medicine disposal process on a more regular basis.