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Bluffton considers creating wetlands to halt waterway pollution

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A dying nature preserve in Bluffton Park is another symptom of the town's rapid growth, as more and more storm drainage flows from roads and new developments and carries pollutants to local waterways.

Runoff used to flow through that 9.65-acre preserve, but now stagnant water is killing trees and other vegetation. Last year, Bluffton and Beaufort County jointly purchased the tract with plans to turn it into a nature classroom.

"Water flows in and it stays there, which is bad

because of the mosquitoes, and trees are dying left and right," said Jeff McNesby, Bluffton's environmental protection director. "We're trying to correct the damage we did to it."

If any water flows from the preserve at all, it slowly drains toward the May River, he said.

Before developments like Bluffton Park, Red Cedar Place and Hidden Lakes, some stormwater drained north to the Colleton River. But Bluffton's growth has altered those drainage paths. Runoff now flows south to the May River, according to Bluffton's 2007 Stormwater Assessment.

One possible solution to revive the dying preserve is to turn the property into a manmade wetland, McNesby said.

The town would maintain as much vegetation as possible, but also re-plant some trees that have died. McNesby said the wetland could be built with a boardwalk across the property so students at the future Red Cedar Elementary School could learn about ecology.

A manmade wetland uses a tiered system of low and high ground elevations. When storms occur, parts of the wetland flood. With time and sunshine, the water level falls and only bacteria from the runoff stay on higher ground, preventing pollutants from reaching the river. The bacteria fertilizes the plants.

"With a created wetland, the water continuously moves very slowly and in a controlled manner," McNesby said. "The pollution you put in will be removed."

It's a successful filtering system which the Town of Hilton Head Island has used for about eight years at Jarvis Creek Park, said Scott Liggett, town director for public projects and facilities and chief engineer.

A stormwater survey is currently under way. It's results will help answer the major question: how to control stormwater.

In April, Bluffton contracted with Applied Technology and Management of Savannah for $167,000 to survey ground elevations and the flow of stormwater. Town officials don't expect a report until July.

The study also would review stormwater systems and current development plans.

"We want to figure out how can we mitigate additional runoff that can come from that construction," McNesby said, adding that problems are not the result of one specific development.

In the meantime, construction won't stop.

Most developments were permitted years ago and have stormwater systems already in place or under construction.

"There's no usefulness in putting everything on hold if it's currently permitted," said Bluffton town manager Bill Workman. The survey, he said, will guide the town's next step.

"We don't know today what we are going to do," Workman said. "For all the land that is not developed, we've got plenty of plans and drawings. What we don't understand is why water is doing what it's doing and what can be done to make it do what we think it ought to do."

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