COASTAL OBSERVER

A solution to one stormwater problem in the Parkersville area is already identified in Georgetown County’s master plan for the Waccamaw. 

A 36-inch pipe under Martin Luther King Road needs to be replaced with a 48-inch pipe. That was estimated to cost $305,000 when the plan was adopted in May 2023.

It’s project 110 out of 165 in the plan.

“Why can’t you hold up this development until you get all the drainage in place?” J.R. Roscher, a Hammock Cove resident, asked stormwater officials at a hearing last week for a proposed townhouse development called Sweet Grass West.

He said that drainage issues in his neighborhood have caused his property adjacent to a stormwater pond to erode by 3 feet. Others among the 50 people who attended the hearing had similar concerns about flooding.

“There’s no disputing that it’s a system that is carrying everything it can carry now,” said Robert Turner, the county stormwater manager.

But he said that holding up new development wasn’t an option in the county stormwater regulations.

Ray Funnye, the director of Public Works, which includes stormwater, said this week that the Martin Luther King drainage could move up on the project list. He also pointed out that the work was also included in a $5.7 million project to install a bike path along the road that would require drainage improvements. It’s one of 22 priority projects on a capital projects sales tax that will be up for approval by voters in November.

The hearing for Sweet Grass West was the second held by the stormwater division since Turner took over and discovered it was a requirement when the county gets 20 requests in response to a permit application. The first, in January for a convenience store on Highway 17 at Beaumont Drive, led to some changes in the permit and the process, he said.

“We want to hear all the comments. It makes us better,” Turner said.

Sweet Grass West is in the Parkersville “special protection area,” one of four where projects must meet a higher standard.

The county stormwater regulations require that new development creates no more runoff than existed before development. In a special protection area, the post-development runoff can only be half what it was prior to development.

For Sweet Grass West, the runoff will be even less than required, Turner said.

The runoff rate is based on storms that can be expected to occur once every five years (6.1 inches in 24 hours) and every 10 years (7.2 inches). The Sweet Grass West system will also retain water in a 25-year storm (8.9 inches) and a 100-year storm (11.7 inches).

He acknowledged that there is another problem impacting the area: beavers on property downstream of Hammock Cove. 

“Either the landowner takes care of the beaver dam or divine intervention takes care of the beaver dam,” Turner said.

Thomas Jacobs, whose house in Hammock Cove backs up to a proposed stormwater pond in Sweet Grass West, said the rooftops and pavement would cause the water that does run off to do so at a higher speed.

“If that water rushes to that pond I guarantee that it will blow it out,” Jacobs said.

“An engineer has guaranteed that it won’t blow it out,” Turner said.

Other area residents said they are concerned that Sweet Grass West will compound problems on their property that were caused by construction of Hammock Cove starting in 2018.

“Hammock Cove, when I was a kid, that was a swamp,” Jackie Lewis said.

Deborah Greggs, who lives next to a stormwater pond built for Hammock Cove, filed suit this month against the developer, D.R. Horton Inc. “Every time it rains, I drive through Hammock Cove, and it looks high and dry,” she said.

Her property has eroded and flooding threatens her foundation, she said.

“I was here before Hammock Cove. I didn’t have any water in my front yard,” said Reginald Thompson, who lives next to the same stormwater pond. Now, “it takes three, maybe five days for that water to leave my yard.”

New development should not be allowed to fill property so it is higher than the neighboring property, he said.

“We were here before the developers,” Thompson said. “You’re allowing them to come in and build property that’s higher than ours.”

If there is a pond that’s overflowing, “there are some rules that we can enforce,” Turner said. “We didn’t call this developer and say, ‘hey, there’s a hot eight acres on Petigru.’ ”

“I’m not blaming you personally, but something needs to be done,” Lewis said.

What the county is doing, said Rodney Butler, the watershed specialist, is enforcing the regulations that were updated last year.

“What we noticed was there was a lot of non-regulated regulation,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure people do things according to what the design manual entails instead of doing whatever they want.”

Turner also noted that Hammock Cove was developed using techniques that are no longer allowed, such as storing water in pipes. But permits are good for five years and some projects under construction now were permitted in 2019 under the old regulations.

“They’re squeaking in under the deadline, and there’s nothing we can do about it,” he said.

The stormwater division, with seven employees, is now fully staffed for the first time in a decade, Turner added.

As for Sweet Grass West, “this developer, so far, seems to be meeting our regulations,” he said.