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Once you pave or build over 10 percent of a watershed's area, water quality starts to degrade.
If 10 percent of the land is covered by houses, roads, parking lots and other hard surfaces, oystering in the headwaters of tidal creeks is likely to be prohibited. If 30 percent or more of the land is covered, it brings the kinds of changes that can't be turned back completely.
That was the message delivered by ecologist Fred Holland, the former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration marine lab in Charleston, to Bluffton officialsand more than 100 people who crowded Town Hall's auditorium Tuesday.
Holland's assessment is not guesswork; it is based on decades of detailed research. We ignore it at the peril of our waterways and our quality of life.
"You can't create the habitat once it's gone," Holland warned. "You can bring it back to something different ... but you can't get back what you lose."
Bluffton and Beaufort County officials must heed this message and pay more than lip service to it. Holland has delivered it 10 times since 1995, the year the county was working on its first comprehensive plan.
Officials in northern Beaufort County must heed it, too. Development there will affect waterways in the same way. It's guaranteed.
In many ways, the certainty makes their work easier. They must decide what level of development they want to live with -- 10 percent, 20 percent, 30 percent or more -- and understand the consequences of that choice.
Then they must do what it takes to get there. They must stop deluding themselves -- and the rest of us --with such abstract goals as "protect the river" and start dealing with the hard realities of what it takes to do that -- the short-term sacrifices that must be made for the long-term goal.
Every land use decision, every road project, every building permit should be seen through the prism of that stated goal.
Bluffton officials have long said they don't want to see oystering closed anywhere in the May River. If that's true, then hard surfaces should be limited to 10 percent or less of the river's watershed.
How do we measure up today? What can we expect if all approved development is completed?
Unfortunately, we're already seeing restrictions on shellfish harvesting in the upper reaches of the May River. Will we someday see the river closed to swimming?
The impact of altering stormwater flow can be tremendous. In a forested tidal creek area, Holland said, a heavy rainfall results in 16 percent runoff. In an urban tidal creek setting, the percentage of stormwater that reaches the creek goes to 63 percent.
That stormwater carries with it pollutants. But just as important to a saltwater estuary's tidal creeks and the creatures that live in them is the volume of freshwater. Freshwater affects the chemistry of the creeks, which are the nurseries of many creatures.
Holland also points out that local government officials hold the key. They control land use, population density, the amount of hard surfaces covering the land. They determine the scale and placement of new roads and buildings.
The strategy should be to minimize the alterations to freshwater flow to the waterways, he said, controlling rate, and most importantly, volume. Land use should be ecosystem based, and we should remember humans are part of the ecosystem.
He also warned that there's a monetary impact to allowing the wrong kind of development. Polluted waters affect property values. Higher income levels and higher property values can be linked to water quality. It's not hard to figure out: People with a lot of money move to beautiful places.
Longtime Bluffton resident Laura Floyd also spoke at Tuesday's Town Council meeting.
"We have the information," Floyd said. "We know what to do."
It is that simple. We know what to do, but do we have the will to do it? And if we don't, let's be honest about it.
