Scratch and Dent Appliances in Sullivan's Island, SC

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Sullivan’s Island town leaders are breaking ground Friday morning on a major project to ease flooding in some of the town’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.

Crews are expected to begin work at drainage basins on Station 28.5 and Station 31, two of the worst-functioning systems on the island.

Crews will need to close some roads while installing new pipes and infrastructure but residents will still have access to their homes. Town officials say contractors will notify property owners in advance if work may affect them directly.

The project is set to break ground at 10 a.m. at the corner of Jasper Boulevard and Station 28.5.

The project is funded through the South Carolina Infrastructure Investment Program grant, which also covers upgrades at Stations 16 and 25 in a later phase.

Officials say the improvements will increase the capacity of main stormwater lines, make upgrades to lateral lines and install tidal backflow prevention devices at each outfall.

Filtration devices are also being added to storm drains to ensure cleaner water flows into the creeks surrounding the island. In some areas, crews will also need to remove and replace road pavement and sidewalks.

Town leaders say the basins selected for this work are among those with the most severe drainage problems, affecting the greatest number of residents. These locations lacked the major trunk lines and lateral lines needed to move water off streets, a problem outlined in the adopted earlier this year. The plan found that a majority of Sullivan’s Island’s drainage systems were outdated with some being more than 100 years old.

A South Carolina Infrastructure Investment Program grant is providing $10 million in funding for the project. The town contributed $1.1 million for design, permitting and planning, mostly from federal American Rescue Plan funds.

Construction is expected to be substantially complete by June 2026.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C (WCBD) – Some homeowners on Sullivan’s Island are challenging a South Carolina Circuit Court ruling protecting the maritime forest.

The forest is once again at the center of a decades-long legal battle, as the residents being represented in case are appealing the 2023 decision in the South Carolina Court of Appeals. The judge ruled in favor of a settlement agreement protecting the 190 acres. Sullivan’s Island for All, a local grassroots organization, advocates that it serves a natural barrier.

“The most important thing is that it is a barrier to protect the island, both the people and the property from big storms,” Howard Holl, president of Sullivan’s Island for All, said. “If you notice what’s been happening recently in Charleston, they’re going to spend a billion dollars for a seawall, and we have this natural seawall here that protects the island.”

In 1991, the town put the area in a deed-restricted land trust belonging to residents. However, those homeowners said they are upset as the forest was not there when they bought their homes. Now it has grown, obstructing what would be oceanfront views.

“They also have the negative consequences of the unmaintained maritime forest that has resulted in a lot of species there that never used to exist, and it sort of changed the nature of front beach living for those folks,” James Hood, attorney for Sullivan’s Island homeowners, said.

The attorney added the maritime forest has created issues with wildlife for his clients.

“It also has an impact on the pests, the rodents, the vermin, the coyotes now that are in front of their yards and have deal with that with their own pets and children, and things of that nature,” Hood said. “So, what’s happened is that the town has created a nuisance that these folks have to live next to while other people don’t.”

However, Holl said the forest serves as a habitat for island wildlife, keeping them out of people’s yards, which is critical to island’s ecosystem.

“We are just dedicated to preserving the forest and cutting down the forest just for views is not something that we see as a possibility,” said Holl.

The attorney said the homeowners believe the forest needs maintenance and ask the court to honor the original contract.

“It entered into a contract to resolve a lawsuit that involved specific, limited maintenance of the maritime forest and accreted land. That’s all we want, is what the town promised to do in the settlement agreement and to go forward and get that permitting and let the work continue,” Hood said.

The South Carolina Court of Appeals may issue a ruling in 2026.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The town of Sullivan’s Island is working to reduce the effects of flooding with projects in the works and a study that forecasts sea level rise and offers solutions to combat it.

A working stormwater system on Sullivans Island is no longer just a pipe dream, Mayor Patrick O’Neill said.

“This is the exciting beginning to a project that’s been years in the making,” he said.

The existing storm drain system is failing, leading to flooding.

“We’re going be removing and replacing some of the existing storm drains and putting in new,” Golf Stream Construction Senior Project Manager Cam Cooper said.

Crews are working on adding massive pipes starting with Station 28.5 and Station 31. O’Neill said the pipes will make it easier for rainwater to get collected and flow out to the marsh. That is one of several flood related projects the town is prioritizing.

Town council will look at a sea level adaptation and resilience plan, which highlights nature-based solutions, on Tuesday.

“What we’re really trying to do with these practices as is mimic predevelopment hydrology, so water moves across the land like before we built upon it,” Weston & Sampson Team Leader Kim Morganello said.

The plan will recommend ten adaptation strategies including redesigning Middle Street, a main road on the island. Researchers looked at where street level rain gardens can be added and where permeable parking would be possible.

The study also looked at open space around the island, researchers identified 33 specific locations that could have nature-based solutions. One of the projects is already moving into implementation, a rain garden will be going in at the Sullivans Island Elementary School.

Morganello said the plan serves as a guidebook through 2050 for the town to reference among anticipated increases in high tides and storms. A model allowed researchers to simulate what the future on the island could look like.

“We increased the title storm search value to almost two feet to show what it would look like in 2050. We also added an increase in rainfall depth to simulate some stronger, more frequent and more intense storms,” Weston & Sampson Senior Project Scientist Lucas Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the models and research provides the town with information that will allow officials to begin to address some items on the community rating system through FEMA.

“That system actually feeds into the insurance premiums for a community standpoint,” Hernandez said.

O’Neill added being proactive on anticipated flood concerns is the best strategy for the town.

“We’re definitely planning for tomorrow’s needs and not today because we do expect sea level rise will continue, we expect there to be more extreme rain events, so we’re trying to plan ahead for that,” O’Neill said.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, members could accept the sea level adaptation and resilience plan document, but they will not be voting on anything in it. O’Neill said as the town considers those solutions there will be opportunity for community involvement along the way.

Click here to review the draft plan.

Click here for the latest on Sullivan’s Island Town Council meetings.

SULLIVAN’S ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The Friends of Charleston National Parks joined South Carolina’s Sea Grant and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources for their 36th Annual Beach Sweep on Sullivan’s Island by Fort Moultrie to collect trash from beaches.

Families and community members across the Lowcountry came out to clean and help protect the beaches on Sullivan’s Island, collecting everything from different plastics to cans.

“The mission for today is really just to get everybody out and about connected with nature, connected with the beach, and really participate in cleaning up the areas that we all love and to help keep a beautiful future for our beaches and for our public lands,” Friends of Charleston National Parks Member Amy Meola said.

Since 1988, South Carolinians have come together every third Saturday in September to clear trash from our beaches and waterways, just like the 36th Annual Beach Sweep.

“Everybody laughing, smiling, having a great time. You know, we just need more of that in the world,” U.S. Coast Guard Seaman and volunteer Will Jones said.

Volunteers were given a trash bag, gloves and a trash picker to help them with their cleanup.

“If we keep throwing it on the ground and bringing it to the beach. All the wildlife is going to get sick, and we don’t want that,” volunteer Sebastain Killian said.

Many children participated in the beach sweep, showing that anyone can help make an impact.

“Sea turtles have found a lot of plastic bags that they think are jellyfish and are eating them, and it gets caught in their throat,” Girl Scout volunteer Katelyn Rising said.

“We’re all part of a community, and if our whole community works together, we can stop this nonsense,” volunteer Penelope Killian said.

“Good to teach kids about learning and sharing their community at a very young age. So, they know better when they get older,” Girl Scout volunteer Hannah Mayhew said.

Volunteers collected an entire truckload of trash and debris from the beach.

“It’s nothing to pick up some trash, throw it away, recycle, do all the good stuff. Man, take care of the environment, take care of us,” Jones said.

“You don’t have to be an expert. You don’t need to know about pollution or the ocean. It’s just showing up and taking a nice walk, and just picking up some trash, and it makes a bigger difference than you would think.” Meola said.

“Coming together as a community, doing what we can to preserve the lands and preserve the history that they hold so that they stay intact for future generations,” volunteer Hanna Goble said.

Under the Trump administration, National Parks are being forced to remove anything that casts a negative light on America. And that could include slavery.

National Park visitors could see changes as early as Wednesday as part of President Donald Trump’s executive order to “Restore Truth and Sanity to American History.” Those changes could include removing books, exhibits and markers about slavery.

But in Charleston, the history of slavery is difficult to ignore.

Fort Sumter is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in a state the was the first to leave the Union. South Carolina cited slavery as a reason in its 1860 articles of secession.

Yet books about slavery have been flagged and could be banned from National Parks like Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie in Charleston, the Charles Pinckney National Historical Site in Mount Pleasant, and the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in Beaufort.

“I can’t imagine anything offensive in this book,” says Marjory Wentworth whose children's picture book called “Shackles” has been flagged, according to a nonprofit that protects parks, the National Parks Conservation Association.

Wentworth says the book is a true story about her boys digging for buried treasure at their Sullivan’s Island home many years ago.

“And they dug up these shackles,” says Wentworth. “And they were, you know, covered in mud, very heavy.”

“I knew exactly what they were.”

Wentworth knew they were shackles for Africans once quarantined on Sullivan’s Island before being sold in Charleston. While the discovery was difficult, Wentworth says it was educational, and she wanted to share the lesson with older children.

Retired National Park Service official Michael Allen stands along the shores of Sullivan’s Island, looking out at Fort Sumter where he worked more than 40 years ago.

At the time, his history on this barrier island as an African American, wasn’t told.

Allen spent decades changing that. He shared not just the tragedies of slavery but the triumphs of people whose forced labor helped build this nation.

“When a person comes here, they’re coming looking for answers, understanding and awareness,” says Allen. “And they might be able to see themselves while they’re here.”

Now he doesn’t know if books, markers and displays he’s collected for national parks in the Lowcountry will withstand the president’s order to remove anything that casts a negative light on America.

“That’s a step toward cleansing, erasure,” says Allen.

National Parks Conservation Association historian Alan Spears is also concerned.

“Great countries don’t hide from their history,” says Spears. “They learn from it and when necessary, they confront it.”

Spears says it’s hard to know what’s being removed because there’s been no transparency about how and why items have been flagged.

“They are sort of winging a conservative agenda to get rid of anything that might make people feel uncomfortable, or worse still, make them think,” says Spears.

In a statement, the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees national parks, says items not consistent with the president’s order will be removed or edited. It does not address the process on how that will be done.

The agency posted park signs this summer, asking people to report negative information about Americans past and present. Most of the comments, provide by the National Parks Conservation Association, are positive. They praise parks and ask that changes to history not be made. But some call park signs woke and narratives divisive.

Visitors waiting at Liberty Square to take a ferry to Fort Sumter seem unaware that changes are in the works. Others, like John Barrett from New Jersey, are alarmed.

“It just seems a little like they’re trying to change what the real history was,” says Barrett. “

In Charleston the slave trade was real.

Just down the street from the Fort Sumter ferry, slave ships docked. Nearly half of the nation’s enslaved Africans were unloaded there, at Gadsden's Wharf.