Locally funded environmental outreach effort reaches new heights

Published: October 18, 2012

image by: Clemson University

CHARLESTON — The Ashley Cooper Stormwater Education Consortium celebrated its fourth year by reaching 2.2 million people across the three-county area through its wide array of stormwater pollution education and awareness initiatives.

In its Year 4 Annual Report of Activities for the period July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012, the consortium expanded its Internet resources, strengthened its “We All Live Downstream” media campaign, established permanent demonstrations across the region and hosted workshops and public-involvement events, such as rain garden installations, oyster reef construction with area youth and river-friendly landscaping.

In March, the consortium welcomed to the partnership the city of Goose Creek, which joined 10 other area communities that partner with Clemson University’s Carolina Clear program to tackle stormwater issues on a regional basis. 

The consortium members are: Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties; the cities of Charleston, Folly Beach, Goose Creek, Isle of Palms, Lincolnville and North Charleston; and the towns of Sullivan’s Island and Summerville.

Carolina Clear’s goal, through area consortia around the state, 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 clean.

The Ashley Cooper consortium would not enjoy such success without the support of its community and education partners and local leadership, said Katie Giacalone, Carolina Clear’s statewide coordinator.

Since its inception in 2008, the consortium has finely tuned its objectives to specific audiences, balancing outreach with a general awareness message for the protection of the region’s waterways and quality of life.

“Yet again, the Ashley Cooper consortium enjoyed its most productive year,” Giacalone said. “Through a wide range of initiatives, underpinned by the strength of its regional collaboration, more people living in Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties learned why water quality is so important to our livelihoods.”

Other new initiatives detailed in the Year 4 report include:

• “The Ripple Effect” bi-monthly electronic newsletter, which provides up-to-date information on consortium-related activities with an expanding distribution to more than 600 local residents.
• The "Thank You!: campaign, developed to thank individuals for their actions to help protect water quality, which includes recycling used oil and picking up after pets. The campaign was launched on area billboards as part of the “We All Live Downstream” advertising campaign.
• The inaugural Charleston-area Stormwater Pond Management Conference, which was attended by more than 180 people who interacted with pond experts and other water quality professionals.

The consortium and its partners hosted two weeks of the 4-H2O Exploring Lowcountry Waterways summer camp, where youth from Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester counties participated in a variety of activities while exploring the Ashley and Cooper river basins. 

Kim Counts, coordinator of the Ashley Cooper consortium, said the numbers reached during the last year illustrate the importance of water quality education and awareness across the region.

“From backyard rain gardens and rain barrels to pet pickup campaigns and restaurant grease disposal programs, the Ashley Cooper consortium is both wide and deep,” Counts said.

“The quality of life in our region depends on healthy surface waters. Keeping our waterways clear of pollution is the responsibility of us all,” she said. “Like the billboards on interstate 26 remind us — ‘We All Live Downstream.’”

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