Stormwater pollution awareness group launches new website

Published: October 25, 2011

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CONWAY — The Coastal Waccamaw Stormwater Education Consortium has launched a newly designed website to help local residents, businesses and organizations play a role in keeping area waterways clear of pollution.

The website includes information on the effects of stormwater pollution, user-friendly tool kits to help prevent stormwater pollution, and volunteer and involvement opportunities.

Click here to visit the website.

Stormwater runoff is the nation’s No. 1 threat to water quality, putting streams, rivers, lakes and beaches at risk. Stormwater is not treated, which means what goes down storm drains ends up in waterways, becoming an environmental and public health concern.

Christopher Ramaglia, a Carolina Clear natural resources Extension agent for Georgetown and Horry counties, said that as the region grows in population more impermeable surfaces are added in the form of rooftops, parking lots, driveways and roads, allowing more pollutants to run off into local waters. 

As development spreads, more potential environmental threats exist that can negatively affect local water quality if proper management and preventative maintenance is neglected, Ramaglia said.

“This website is a powerful resource that will help the Coastal Waccamaw consortium accomplish its goals,” he said.

In Horry and Georgetown counties, the Coastal Waccamaw consortium is a regional collaboration involving Clemson University’s Carolina Clear program in partnership with communities and educators from universities, state agencies and nonprofits.

Carolina Clear’s goal is to minimize polluted stormwater runoff by educating the general public, youth, builders, developers, homeowners and government officials about how they can keep water in the state’s streams, rivers and basins as clean as possible.

The consortium includes the Coastal Carolina University Waccamaw Watershed Academy, Murrells Inlet 2020, the North Inlet-Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR), the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and the Winyah Rivers Foundation Waccamaw Riverkeeper Program.

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