Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2018

68 www.MountPleasantMagazine.com | www.MountPleasant.Pet | www.MountPleasantBuilders.com feature and Waterworks are targeting another major polluter by offering financial incentives for local residents still using septic tanks to tie into the municipal sewer system. Meanwhile, the town’s Stormwater Division is doing its best to keep rain from washing trash, oil, grease, leaves and, yes, dog poop, into Shem Creek’s vast watershed and ending up in the creek. “The quality of the water in Shem Creek is not the best,” said Mount Pleasant Town Councilman Jim Owens, who wrote the original draft of the Environmentally Acceptable Packaging Products Ordinance, which went to the Council’s Economic Development Committee and Police, Legal & Judicial Committee in February. “We’re going to clean it up as much as we can.” Mount Pleasant’s efforts to keep foam and plastics from polluting Shem Creek could be stymied by the state of South Carolina. In February, the House passed a bill that would prevent local governments from banning these items. According to Wunderley, plastic pollution is a major problem in Shem Creek and throughout the Lowcountry. He pointed out that the five most common polluters are plastic bottles, bottle caps, Styrofoam, food wrappers and plastic bags. He said these materials break down into tiny microplastics within four to six weeks and in many cases are consumed by fish, shrimp, turtles and birds. “The environmental ecosystem all works together,” he said. “We don’t want to lose the shrimp, the birds and the dolphins. We need to protect the tidal creeks that shrimp and oysters call home. We need to protect the whole system.” As dangerous as plastics are for the environment, Wunderley pointed out that rainfall is even more harmful to the quality of the water in Shem Creek because it washes oil, grease, brake dust, fertilizer, pesticides and leakage from septic tanks into the creek. “We’ve changed the way land and water interact by developing land around the creek,” he pointed out. “In a natural watershed, the rain soaks into the ground – not so with all the development around Shem Creek.” Waterkeeper and its more than 1,500 volunteers are doing their part to improve the quality of the Lowcountry’s waterways by regularly testing the water in Shem Creek and elsewhere; collecting oyster shells and using them to build reefs; collecting debris from waterways and marshes; and pumping the waste out of bathrooms in boats that might otherwise end up being discharged into rivers or creeks. “Our goal is to make it 100-percent safe to swim in Shem Creek,” Wunderley commented. The town of Mount Pleasant is attacking the stormwater issue with a six-part plan based on public Photo by Jess Wood. NPDES Inspector Jim Taylor tests the water that empties from a drainage pipe on Rosemead Road.