City Partners With Clemson on Stormwater Education

The City of Goose Creek is calling in the professionals to improve local stormwater education.

On Wednesday, Mayor Michael Heitzler signed a resolution partnering with the Ashley Cooper Stormwater Education Consortium. ACSEC includes 10 other area communities working with Clemson University's Carolina Clear program.

The goal is to educate residents, homeowner organizations, builders and others about the importance of keeping pollutants out of the storm drains that run untreated to our local waterways.

"We have a lot of programs for each of those audiences," said David Joyner, Carolina Clear Natural Resource Agent. "We had a stormwater pond conference trying to help HOAs better understand what tools and resources they have available."

Education and outreach is key to state and federal requirements and Goose Creek Public Works Director Steve Price said it's good to outsource this work after years of doing it in-house.

"It's getting this information out to the public, trying to monitor or record or measure or quantify who you're reaching and how you're reaching them and how you're modifying your programs to address your specific audience," Price said. "We'd done the best we could, but it was apparent that this was something we needed to be more involved in and focus more on."

He noted that the consortium and Carolina Clear target the larger watershed and provide resources the city just couldn't put towards the education program. 

"We wanted to be just as professional dealing with the education, outreach and public participation as we were with the technical aspects of stormwater — engineering and inspection and all that," Price said. 

Other communities in the consortium include: Berkeley County; Charleston County; Dorchester County; City of Charleston; City of Folly Beach; City of Goose Creek; City of Isle of Palms; City of Lincolnville; City of North Charleston; Town of Sullivan’s Island; and the Town of Summerville.