Development gobbling up wetlands along Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico coasts

More than 354,000 acres of wetlands have been lost to development along the coasts of the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico from 1998 to 2004, according to a U.S. government report released last week.

The report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a net loss of 59,000 acres a year during each of those six years.

While data is not available by state, Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman Tamara Ward said the southeast region from the Carolinas to Florida lost about 10,000 acres of wetlands over the six-year period.

The report was intended to create awareness, Ward said. Federal agencies now are working to create management and policy recommendations for wetland conservation.

Coastal wetlands provide habitat for migratory birds and sea life and act as a buffer against stormy seas.

LOCAL CHANGES

Beaufort County has about 170,000 acres of forested and tidal wetlands, according to 1988 figures listed in the county's comprehensive plan. Those figures are the most recent available.

Technical planner Teri Norris said the nature of the undeveloped land in the county has changed significantly since 1988 -- especially in the Bluffton

area.

Those changes are due to two factors.

When paper companies harvested timber in Bluffton, wetlands were drained by the constant moving of dirt and cutting of trees.

Later, when that land was developed, building rose atop former wetlands, she said.

DEFINING 'WET'

Chris Marsh of The Lowcountry Institute, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to protect water quality and marine resources, said some areas are not classified as wetlands because they are only "wet" during exceptionally rainy years.

"We need to make sure we don't do development where the water table is so close to the surface that existing soils can't filter the negative effects of development, like stormwater," Marsh said.

"In the headwaters of the May River and other areas of Beaufort County, there are

areas not classified as wetlands, but they have hydric soils," he said. That means "they have wet conditions, and therefore when it rains in those areas, you will have rapid runoff."

Developing in areas where the water table is too high will lead to poor water quality, Marsh said, because the soil won't absorb nutrients and pollutants from stormwater. That polluted water then runs into local lakes and streams.

Marsh said some development already has occurred in areas that were once considered too wet.

Sun City Hilton Head, for example, "was basically an alligator swamp with five farms, and now they have carefully carved lagoons to drain the water to various places," Norris said.

If years of drought are followed by rainy seasons, water might flood the lagoons there and causeproblems, Norris said.

"The way our county is described with 50-percent water ... in most cases around the country this would not be buildable," Norris said. "If you look at a national soils manual, they would advise not to (build). But these are the beauty spots. This is where people come. Everybody will scratch out their own pad and make it buildable to the sacrifice of something else."