W. 1-Foot Ocean Rise By 2050 Baked In, Project Will Put 20,000 Residents In 100-Year Flood Zone Next To Charleston SC

Last edited Sun Oct 27, 2024, 11:48 AM - Edit history (1)

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DeScherer is used to making the eloquent, green case for Cainhoy. “This is one of the most ecologically valuable, undeveloped tracts left in coastal South Carolina,” he says from the boat. “It is truly special in terms of its size, adjacent to the national forest, wildlife species, the marsh.” But he also knows that appealing to a marsh or endangered bat is not equally persuasive to everyone. He’s worked as an environmental attorney since 2000; the ringtone on his phone is a cricket chirping. For him, the case for developing Cainhoy sustainably is as much about urban planning. “Even if you don’t care about wetlands, wildlife—protect people. The roads are going to be underwater even if the houses aren’t.” The water in Charleston Harbor is expected to rise over a foot by 2050, according to federal scientists. By then other studies suggest tidal flooding will be a common occurrence two days out of three. “That’s already the reality in Charleston,” Roll said. “The sun’s out and it’s flooding.”

Under its current plan, almost half of the development’s 9,000 houses will be built in a 100-year floodplain: a designation for land with a 1 percent chance of experiencing a catastrophic flood every year with current sea levels. “They’re basically adding a small city to Charleston,” DeScherer said, motoring with Roll back down toward the city, “and no one has taken a holistic assessment of all the ways this is going to impact not only this tract of land but Charleston in general. It’s shortsighted.” Even from 20 miles away, SELC believes the project will affect Charleston by building on top of 182 acres of wetland. According to the EPA, every acre of wetland absorbs 1 million to 1.5 million gallons of water during a flood, then releases it slowly like a sponge. While the wetland in Cainhoy only constitutes a small fraction of the state’s total, it is enough to hold 270 million gallons of floodwater: the equivalent of over 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

More recent research from the University of California, Berkeley, attempting to quantify how wetlands protect us from flooding, suggests that every lost hectare of wetland near developed areas causes an additional $8,000 of flood damage annually. If that national average holds true in Cainhoy, the development stands to create almost $600,000 in additional flood damages each year. That figure does not include new infrastructure built in the path of flooding. At Cainhoy almost one in two of the new homes is planned for construction in a floodplain. According to DI Developments, that amounts to just over 20,000 new residents living in the 100-year floodplain.

Robert Young is a geology professor and director of the Developed Shorelines study program at Duke and Western Carolina Universities. He has followed the project through its permitting and says it represents disjointed thinking about climate risk. “The City of Charleston wants over a billion dollars of federal money to build a sea wall around the peninsula, and at the same time, with a straight face, they want to put all these houses in an area where almost all of it is in a flood zone,” Young said.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27102024/charleston-endangered-bats-waterfront-mega-development/